Over the last eight months video views on popular video streaming website YouTube have jumped 25% to 4 billion online videos each day.
Video views continue to increase particularly in the smartphone and Smart TV market where users are able to download YouTube videos faster and with better display quality.
YouTube has also revealed that uploads to the service have greatly increased from 48 hours each minute in May to 60 hours each minute at the current time.
While YouTube users are watching more videos through the service YouTube users only spend 15 minutes each day watching videos on the site while American TV watchers consume four to five hours watching TV every day on average. It’s that low level of engagement that has led investors to question YouTube’s earnings capabilities.
During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings calls Google didn’t break out earnings based directly on YouTube but they did report $5 billion earned in display ads on an annualized run rate basis.
To possibly increase user engagement YouTube has set aside $100 million for featured celebrity channels from the likes of Amy Poehler and Ashton Kutcher among other stars of screen and sports.
With the TV industry taking in $60 billion per year in ad spend YouTube and other online video providers are looking to quickly increase their own ad market which currently receives $3 billion per year in video ad spend.
