I was searching for something on the Internet and I casually saw a video of it on YouTube. It was then that it hit me. YouTube has been around for 15 years, can you actually believe that?
Each day more than a billion hours of content is being watched by people that generates billions of video views. 5 billion of the world’s population has mobile devices and this constitutes about 70% of the website’s watch time.
It was founded on February 14, 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim all ex-PayPal employees. They funded it with the incentives they received when eBay bought PayPal. It was later acquired by Google for a cool $1.65 billion on October 9, 2006.
Let me provide you with a perspective on what this social multimedia platform has unleashed on us within the last 15 years. Below, I’m going to provide you with some of the best figures, facts, and statistics gathered from around the web about YouTube.
General Stats About YouTube
- There are over 2 billion monthly regular users
- It is the world’s 2nd biggest Search Engine
- 37% of mobile global web traffic
- Mobile constitutes 70% of watch time
- Localized for 100 countries in 80 languages
- 60% of people favour watching online videos to live TV
- 51% people visit the website daily.
- 600 hours of content uploaded every minute.
- 1 billion hours worth of content is watched each day.
- People watch videos for entertainment and relaxation.
- 79% of internet traffic accounted by online videos.
Summary: By looking at the above information you can see that not only is YouTube a very popular video platform, but it commands 51% of all visitor traffic and 37% of mobile web traffic globally.
In 2019, 600 hours of videos got uploaded every minute. This is a substantial increase in the video content consumption cravings for web users.
Videos tagged as music, entertainment, people and blogs were the ones to collect the greatest view shares in 2018. In recent years user-made content made some of the significant Internet buzzes.
YouTube started as a medium for original videos. It set up a new creative category for content makers drawing huge viewers to their screens and they subsequently became celebrities themselves. The site’s other chief approach is providing corporate media like official music videos that goes viral within hours and reaches 200-300 million views in a few days.
YouTube Demographics Stats
- The website’s videos reach to a greater degree 18/19-year-olds than any TV network.
- For millennials, it makes-up for about 67% of all video online activity.
- 2/3rd of the millennials use the website to search and find instructional videos on any topic or niche that you can think of.
- YouTube also appeals across various age groups in US.
- 81% for 15-25 years, 71% for 26-35 years, 67% for 36-45 years, 66% for 46-55 years, 58% for 56 and older
- It reaches 90% of US families earning over $100,000 in income annually.
- During a normal month, YouTube will reach 95% of web users over the age of 55.
- More than 50% of the viewers are female
Summary: Looking at these numbers, it is no surprise YouTube is a jumping-off point for influencers. It is also a mighty income-generating machine for Google and parent Alphabet.
In 2019, it produced ad revenues of about $15.15 million globally. This accounts for roughly 9.4% of Google’s annual gross revenues. Brands and companies are devising ways to profit from YouTube’s huge audience, and have now begun to upload videos to their brand channels. In the US alone, Hulu, Target, and Samsung are some of the top advertisers on YouTube with regards to display ads, launching skippable videos, impressions, and other formats.
YouTube advertising is expensive when comparing social media networks, but it pays off. This is why brands and companies expect to see an increase in YouTube usage for ads in the coming years.
YouTube Marketing Stats
- It is the 2nd most watched website to upload videos for businesses.
- It is the 3rd most watched network for marketing influencer videos.
- 2/3 shoppers mention videos as an inspiration of purchase decisions
- 90% of these consumers discover something new by using YouTube.
- About 1/2 half of the marketers have invested in YouTube advertising.
- A YouTube mobile ad will engage viewers 84% more when compared with TV ads.
- Users have viewed more than 50,000 years worth of product reviews since 2016.
- Users are 3X more likely to view a video tutorial than read the steps to do it.
- 80% of customers who viewed video for purchase ideas said they did that at the start of their customer journey.
- The amount of SMBs promoting on the site has doubled since 2016.
- Comparing digital channels, YouTube is the 2nd-most influential for purchases.
Summary: You have a lot to grasp here. I’ll start from the top. Regarding businesses, it is the 2nd most watched website to upload videos. Facebook, on the other hand, is still the king. For best results, I’d recommend uploading on both networks.
I would advise you to analyse your audience information. Even if it seems everybody on the Internet uses both platforms, you have a great chance of attracting unique visitors for each. If you are able to optimize your videos on both video-sharing networks, you will draw in a consistent flow of qualified leads.
YouTube Traffic Stats
- 4 billion videos are seen each day everyday
- More than 800 million unique visitors every month
- More than 3 billion hours of video watched every month
- What the major 3 US broadcasters produced in 60 years is uploaded in a month
- 70% of website traffic comes from outside the US
- It is localized in 100+ countries and across 80+ languages
Summary: Looks like a lot of traffic for a video sharing website and still there are no traffic jams. All of this is feasible because of the ease with which videos can be uploaded, tagged, and marketed to people. This is also possible because the uploaded content can be easily searched making it the second biggest search engine after Google.
Data, data, data is the only thing I will say here. Optimize your content based on the latest trends that prevalent online and it will become viral.
YouTube Partner Program Stats
- YouTube partner program was created in 2007
- Has over 30,000+ partners from 27 countries globally
- The company pays millions of dollars every year to its partners
- Thousands of partners make six figure incomes each year
- Partner revenues have doubled for four straight years
- There’s now more than a million YouTube Partner Program members
Summary: YouTube’s Partner Program (YPP) gives creators better access to YouTube’s features and resources. You get access to the Creator Support Teams, Copyright Match Tool, and monetization features.
To be eligible for the YPP, you’ll have live in a region or country where it’s available, have over 4,000 public valid watch hours in the past 12 months, over 1,000 subscribers, and have a linked valid AdSense account. The YPP provides you with the necessary tools and features to monetize and promote your account.
YouTube Money Stats
- More than 3 billion video views are monetized globally every week
- AdAge’s Top 98 out of 100 advertisers have run ads on Google’s Display Network and YouTube
- Thousands of advertisers are using TrueView in-stream ads
- 60% of TrueView in-stream ads can now be skipped
Summary: The first ads on YouTube appeared in August 2007. Nonetheless, YouTube is secretive about ad revenue. It is crucial to remember that most channels are monetized through AdSense earnings.
The more famous your channel is, you’ll have a wider range of money-making methods available to you. You can command significant sums of money from endorsements, sponsorship, product placements, and other merchandise.
YouTube Product Metrics
- There is more HD content available than any other online video website
- You can view thousands of full-length motion pictures on YouTube
- 10% of all YouTube videos are available in HD
- YouTube mobile received more than 600 million views each day
- 70% of the total views comes from mobile devices
- Mobile ads are more likely to be watched than TV ads by 84%
- In 2019, content creators posted more than 50,000 videos using “Day in the Life” in their titles
- Average durations of top viral videos in 2019 compared to 2010 were over 9.5X longer.
Summary: These above stats just prove how powerful the platform really is. Although, you will get all types of videos, more and more videos are being uploaded in HD.
YouTube is ideal to reach a young audience but it also engages viewers across all age groups.
You should add YouTube Live to your content strategy as many people are not looking forward to seeing live videos.
Final Verdict
These are really crazy numbers. If you are just a simple YouTube viewer who wants to know the stats behind these online videos, I hope the above stats have impressed you.
Many of us use YouTube’s app or website daily. From the above data points it is clear that it is an integral part of our lives.
I have covered the basics here, and if you want to add more to these crazy facts just post them in the comments section below. Show us some love and share this article with friends and family so they can also know these crazy YouTube stats.