Who are the biggest users of video sharing sites?
Brazilians are the heaviest users of online video sharing sites, followed by youths in the UK, Japan and Mexico. China and Denmark use these sites the least.
Globally, 80% of young people have visited sites like YouTube to watch online video clips. Males tend to be the heaviest users of online video sites – 87% males compared to 74% females. These sites are the most popular amongst the under 20’s (in particular males 14-21 and females 14-17) with 40% of 18-21 year old males visiting online video sites regularly, compared to 24% of females in the same age group. Only 20% who took part in this survey have yet to use these sites or have not heard of them.
Very few of this generation do not consume some form of content, although the extent to which they are doing this does vary:
- 80% of youths view some form of social media content;
- 61% are ‘contributors’ – add comments to content;
- 60% are ‘forwarders’ – they will share links with their friends;
- 40% are ‘creators’ – keep a regular blog, upload videos or photos;
- 19% are ‘finders’ – they will actively look for content to share with their friends.
The primary motivation to view and create online video content is for humour.
Humorous clips are searched for or uploaded (predominately by males), sometimes just for the benefit of their friends, or to see if people will like it. Other reasons are that it provides an opportunity for young people to look good by sharing funny content, and that it’s the cheapest and easiest way to share stuff with friends.
Links from friends dominate navigation to online video clips.
This is particularly evident amongst young people in the US and UK, where they are acting as ‘forwarders’ as they send links and clips to their friends through IM and email. Searching for clips is also common.
Are youths just watching short clips of user generated content?
Watching content via a PC is now widespread, with two-thirds of youths having watched film trailers, music videos and clips from YouTube. However 46% watch previews of TV shows from the Internet, 45% watch highlights of TV shows/sports and 43% watch full length TV shows. In addition, there was a significant increase amongst those interested in watching full length TV shows in the future (56%).
Via a PC, young people are generally prepared to watch online video for around 40 minutes as compared to less than 30 minutes on a mobile phone.
