As a society we are always wanting to see new, different and exciting things. We enjoy something that grab our attention, that fill us up with temporary feelings and information until we move on to the next new thing.

YouTube has become a content phenomenon, its power and influence growing at breathtaking speed. It can even claim to be the world’s second largest search engine – after Google itself. Some of its statistics are quite staggering:

• 1,325,000,000 people use YouTube
• 300 hours of of video are uploaded every minute
• 4,950,000,000 videos are viewed on YouTube every day

Viewers are turning to digital. Google commissioned a survey in 2016 to understand what the latest viewing trends on YouTube were:

• 6 out of 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV
• 8 out of 10 18-49 year-olds watch YouTube
• on mobile alone, YouTube reaches more 18-49-year-olds than any broadcast or cable tv network

Guess what else? Google released a study showing that YouTube advertising was a better source of consistent ROI than TV ads (8 in 10 studies found YouTube had a greater ROI). YouTube ads are cheaper and reach more people, we see here.

So, with all this time spent watching YouTube, on a wide variety of devices, what is it that the world is watching? Let’s take a look at:

• Casey Neistat – an American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, which was later acquired by CNN.  In 2018, he founded 368, a creative space for creators to collaborate and influence each other. To have a better perspective of how he made it big, watch his video DO WHAT YOU CAN’T. (11 M subscribers and 2.52 B views)
• Eh Bee Family has taken over social media by storm and so many people love them! They are a Canadian internet celeb family best known for their Vine, YouTube, and Instagram channels, which have over 7 million combined subscribers and well over 800 million total views. They create skits and parodies to entertain a family-centered audience. (8 M subscribers, 2 B views)
• Unbox Therapy – Lewis George Hilsenteger, is most well-known for his uploads ‘unboxing’ style videos in which he opens a new gadget for the first time to test it out. He started it while working in a small computer repair shop. Hilsenteger realized that the conversations he was having with people that came into the shop asking questions could be answered really well in videos and this got him started. (14 M subscribers, 3 B tviews)
• Yes Theory – By saying yes to joy, you are statistically more likely to achieve it the more often. Yes Theory are brilliant content creators but you can only appreciate their work by watching their videos. They reached so far, to challenge Will Smith into bungee jumping with them, and he agreed. (3.5 M subscribers)

But what is happening to television in all this while? Viewers are slowly moving away from traditional TV. Instead, the market for on-demand services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and even the new Youtube Premium is growing. In 2017 Google turned its attention to people watching YouTube on their televisions sets. The study shows the number has doubled over the last two years. YouTube videos are now competing with prime-time broadcasts.

We are witnessing a trend occurring across many industries in the 21st century – the consumer choice is becoming more powerful than established institutions. This is why, even if traditional TV companies base entire shows on online content, or have own apps, to keep up with the new era, people are not that intrigued, because now you can watch what you want, wherever you are, at any time you desire.

By Diana Zaharia, Digital Marketing Consultant