Five years ago, consumers were uploading six hours of video to YouTube every minute. Now,
they’re uploading ten times that amount -- 60 hours of video to YouTube every minute, or about an hour of video to YouTube every second, the
site said on Monday.
What’s more, YouTube users around the world watch four billion videos every day, an increase of 25% in the last eight months. According to comScore’s most
recent figures, Google sites (which is primarily comprised of YouTube), lured 157.2 million unique viewers in the United States in December, watching nearly 22 billion videos that month.
The amount of videos viewed
should get a big boost in less than two weeks from the Super Bowl. Typically, YouTube has earned millions of views for the Super Bowl commercials. Already, the Web site is gearing up to capture
consumer interest in the Giants-Patriots showdown on February 5. The site’s Ad Blitz section to vote on the best ads now includes pre- game
coverage, such as news and recipes from YouTube partners.
Despite a disappointing fourth quarter earnings report
last week, Google’s CEO Larry Page said the company is pleased with YouTube’s financials and ad performance. In addition to Android and Chrome, YouTube is one of the areas Google will be devoting a lot of focus to in the year ahead, he said.
And, just for fun, if you want to see what 60 hours of video per minute equates to, check out this YouTube site.