It doesn't take a genius to figure out that online video is growing throughout out the world, but here are some statistics to back it up, in the U.S., at least.
Nielsen reported nearly 167 million unique Web video viewers in November, responsible for a staggering 22 billion video streamed during the month. The average "streamer" watched more than five hours of Web video in November.
So who led the pack? YouTube. Google's giant of a website beat everyone else by at least three to one in terms of unique viewers, Nielsen reported, with nearly 131 million. VEVO, the online video site specializing in music videos, was second, with almost 43 million. Yahoo and Facebook were third and fourth, respectively.
YouTube was also tops in total number of video streams, the researcher said, with 13.4 billion. That blew everyone else out of the water; Hulu was next with 819 million, good enough to easily beat Netflix, its over-the-top nemesis, which recorded 260 million streams.
But in the important category of time spent per visit, Netflix was king in November, with nearly 10.5 hours, Nielsen said. Hulu and GorillaVid tied for a distant second, at slightly more than 3 hours. YouTube obviously attracts a "touch and go" viewer, if you will. Despite dominating in unique visitors, the site came in fourth in time spent per visit.
