2015 has been an extremely exciting year for online video. Witness the rapid rise of Facebook as a serious player in online video. Just this month the social media site announced that more than 8 billion videos are displayed on the site each day. Or how about the 6 billion videos that are viewed on messaging app SnapChat daily.
And it's not just the volume of video that is astounding. 2015 has seen the emergence of exciting new ways of creating and consuming video, whether that is YouTube's 360 player or the soon to arrive virtual reality Occulus Rift. These technologies promise a world of video which is more immersive and more engaging. For video creators this will open up new possibilities to deliver unique experiences for their viewers.
With 2016 almost upon us it is worthwhile reflecting on the current state of online video. Below are five key statistics which show how video will continue to transform the internet in 2016 and beyond.
80% of all internet traffic will be video by 2019. That's up from 64% in 2014. (Source: Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2014-2019 White Paper)
The growth in video consumption on Facebook and Snapchat in the past six months clearly demonstrates that the appetite for online video is enormous. This is a trend that shows no signs of slowing down as we enter 2016. If predictions in the CISCO study prove to be correct within the next few years the overwhelming majority of internet traffic will be video.
79% of websites that feature video use third party hosting (Source: Crayon State of Video Report 2015)
The vast majority of websites that feature video are choosing to use third party solutions rather than self hosting. YouTube is by far the most popular third party solution with 70% of the market share. Among paid third party solutions Vimeo dominates with 57% of the market. YouTube may face serious competition for social sharing of videos from sites like Twitter and Facebook, but when it comes to hosting embedded videos the Google owned site continues to dominate.
66% of higher education institutions use video for remote teaching or learning (Source: The State of Video in Education: A Kaltura Report)
The impact of online video goes beyond entertainment. One of the most exciting areas of growth for video has been the realm of education. Video is allowing anyone with an internet connection to benefit from a first class education. The range of material that is available, and the quality of the educators, is impressive. The consequences of millions of people newly empowered through online education will likely be enormous.
Half of advertisers are moving budget from TV to digital video (Source: AoL 2015 US State of the Video Industry Report)
According to figures published by Nielsen traditional TV watching by viewers aged 18 to 34 has been falling by around 4% since 2012. Advertising dollars are following those eyeballs with half of advertisers switching to digital video. However, the clear demarcation between TV and digital is also decreasing. According to the CISCO report detailed above, internet to TV is predicted to increase by 4x from 2014 to 2019.
96% of B2B organizations are using video has part of their online marketing (Source: 2015 B2B Video Content Marketing Survey)
The use of video by B2B businesses is now near ubiquitous. However, B2B marketers are still faced with a number of challenges. The same B2B Video Content Marketing Survey detailed above revealed that only 13% of B2B organizations spend more than $50K on video production. Likely one of the reasons for this under investment in video is due to the difficulties that marketers are having proving ROI (Return on Investment). In fact, 44% said that their biggest challenge is measuring the ROI on their video marketing.
2016 will likely be a landmark year for online video. Social networks Facebook and Twitter are investing heavily in both the promotion of video and providing new ways of consuming it. Brands will have an increasing range of options to reach consumers with video, creating both new opportunities and new challenges. As the extremely rapid rise of Facebook as a video content platform demonstrates, there could be plenty of surprises next year, but the overall trend for online video in 2016 is almost certain to be overwhelmingly positive.