Online video has gone from zero to a staggering 800 million monthly visitors and 4 billion hours of video viewed per month.

And that is just YouTube!

Every second there are 46,296 YouTube videos being viewed all around the world. In just 8 years it has transformed the web from mono media to multimedia. Videos are embedded in blogs, websites and online stores. eCommerce stores with product video reviews produce better conversion rates. This practice has been adopted by brands such as Zappos with 50,000 video product reviews.

Competitors emerged such as Vimeo, Hulu and Blip.tv to try and catch the action. Some have survived and others have struggled against the mind and market share of YouTube.

It helps that YouTube has been part of the Google stable since 2006 when it was acquired for $1.65 billion only 18 months after starting.

Entertainment to Education

Online videos have also moved from entertainment to education. Want to learn?…. then fire up a “How To” video. The Khan Academy is a free online resource that educates students on maths and science and other topics with the power of free video in 10 minute consumable chunks.

Its success is measured by the fact it now has over 3,900 videos and has lured one of Google’s most senior people to its team.

YouTube Videos Supercharge Television Ads

Mass media agencies have realised that a one off 30 second television ad does not provide the viral capability or crowd sourced supercharging of a brand message. Online videos are a media that keeps giving through social media network sharing long after it has been viewed on the TV screen.

You only need to see the success of the Old Spice campaign to realise that archiving the television ad after a few views is a poor use of mass media advertising campaign funds.

Design and build content for mass and social media.

The Top YouTube Facts

In a few days (February 14 to be exact). YouTube will be 8 years old and continues to grow and evolve. This is helped by the addition of features such as high definition and technology that allows video to be viewed anywhere on high speed wireless 4G networks on your smart phone.

Started on Valentines day, February, 2005

First video was titled “Me at the zoo”

Full HD released in November, 2009

Broke the 2 billion video views a day in May, 2010

Trueview ads launched in 2010

One million+ partner program members

Major redesign in December, 2011

Reached 4 billion video views in December, 2012

First video to reach 1 billion views (Gangam Style – PSY)

It is the second largest search engine (bigger than Bing, Yahoo, ASK and Yahoo all combined)

800 Million+ monthly unique visitors

Infographic Source: ShortyMedia

How are You Using Online Video?

Do you use it for educating? How about capturing and building your email list by offering free valuable video content? Do you tap into its communication capabilities to sell your products and services and for providing product reviews?

How effective has it been for your online marketing. Look forward to hearing your stories in the comments below

Want to learn more about how to create compelling content that your audience wants to read and view?

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.