YouTube Most Effective Vid Distributor
Thanks to video sites like YouTube, Veoh, Metacafe and others, video distribution is easier than ever, but which site packs the most playcount punch? According to an upcoming study from video analytics firm TubeMogul, the answer is YouTube.
You’d think that having the largest audience and the biggest library might cancel out its effectiveness, but TubeMogul found that videos uploaded to YouTube consistently get more plays than any other site, regardless of category. YouTube was the clear winner, with videos pulling in an average of more than 3,000 views in the first 90 days after being uploaded to the site. Yahoo was second place, with nearly 700 views, and Veoh was third, with 662 views.
It should be noted that this data does undervalue Metcafe’s playcount, as Metacafe is the only site that counts one view per IP address. TubeMogul did not provide an adjustment for this stat.
What does this mean for content creators?
Since distributing a video through any of these sites doesn’t cost anything, it won’t hurt to keep posting them everywhere. But since YouTube is doing most of the heavy playcount lifting, producers should focus their marketing efforts on YouTube. Make sure URLs back to the producer’s site or YouTube channel are prominent at the front of the video; make sure all your best work is there and easy for people to find and enjoy; and make your channel page as pleasing to the eye as possible (especially given the short shelf life of web video).
TubeMogul studied more than 200,000 videos for this study and will release the entire findings on Thursday in its research section.
Recent
GigaOM Network
Copyright 2001–2008 Giga Omni Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress.com. Marketing consulting by ACS.
I’d like to see a geographic breakdown, at least U.S. vs. non-U.S. And “engagement” of the view - did the user watch the entire video?
Frank Sinton on July 15th, 2008 at 12:17 pm - Permalink
If you’re measuring average cume views over a 90 period doesn’t cume suggest unduplicated? If so they all should be reported like MetaCafe 1 view per IP address.
Nick on July 15th, 2008 at 12:59 pm - Permalink
When it comes to short-form content it is about quantity rather than quality.
Kieran Hawe on July 15th, 2008 at 5:48 pm - Permalink
Your suggestion that people continue to post their videos on other sharing sites is not without its drawbacks.
Because YouTube rewards videos that get a lot of views quickly (the top ‘videos’ page is the most watched in the last 24 hours), if people are watching the video on another site instead of youtube, you’re losing that view, making it harder for you to get to youtube’s top pages. It’s like splitting the vote in an election. If Nader is available, some people are gonna take it and then Bush wins.
Of course, getting to those top pages then brings in even more views. So there’s a lot of incentive for producers to keep people away from watching (and particularly, embedding on their own site) their videos from other sharing sites. They may have a higher bitrate or a nicer player, but not the distribution muscle that YouTube brings to the table.
Most video producers still haven’t figured this out.
Jim Gilliam on July 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm - Permalink
[...] who crossposts videos to multiple video-sharing sites already knows this, but TubeMogul now confirms it: when posted to multiple sites, your video will get the most views on YouTube. TubeMogul posts [...]
Crossposts Get Most Play on YouTube on July 16th, 2008 at 6:29 am - Permalink
[...] Read the rest of this post Print all_things_di220:http://voices.allthingsd.com/20080717/albrecht-2/ Sphere Comment Tagged: Metacafe, TubeMogul, Veoh, Voices, YouTube, video | permalink [...]
YouTube Most Effective Vid Distributor | Chris Albrecht | Voices | AllThingsD on July 17th, 2008 at 5:58 am - Permalink