YouTube's Journey To Reinvent Television On Mobile
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, July 23, 2015
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki promises to add virtual reality and 3D support for videos that play back in its 360-degree format. The announcement, made at Vidcon in Anaheim late Thursday, comes
one day after the debut of the first 360-degree online ad from Bud Light. It also leverages Google Cardboard, the company's virtual reality headset.
Wojcicki called YouTube "the reinvention of television" -- where traditional rules of strict time slots are gone, and search makes it possible to access content on demand from any device.
The number of viewers coming to YouTube who start and search at the site's home page rather than google.com, similar to the way they might turn on their TV, is up over three times year-on-year, she said.
Wojcicki also previewed a redesigned mobile app that will offer an easy way for fans to opt-in to all notifications from favorite creator's channels. She spoke about the live-stream feature that will go from a 12-step process to three, and the addition of two new studio spaces in Toronto and Mumbai.
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YouTube has seen 100% year-over-year revenue growth from mobile, with more than half of YouTube views and watch time now on mobile devices. The number of people watching YouTube per day rose 40% year over year since March 2014.
More than 400 hours of content gets uploaded each minute. Revenue in the "six figures" paid out to channel content creators has grown by more than 50% year over year, and the company has seen this level of partner revenue growth for three straight years.
Growth in watch time on YouTube has accelerated and now accounts for more than 60% year over year. The amount of content uploaded to YouTube has grown over the past year, with more than 400 hours uploaded each minute.
"The most important part about the reinvention of television is the social nature of online video -- the connection between you and your fans," Wojcicki said.
The connection changes what it means to become a celebrity. A survey done earlier this year found that eight of the top 10 of the most popular celebrities among American teens were YouTubers, not movie or television stars, she said.
The survey among U.S. teens ages 13-18, conducted by brand strategist Jeetendr Sehdev and first reported in Variety, asked respondents how 20 well-known personalities stacked up in terms of approachability, authenticity and other criteria considered aspects of their overall influence.
Considering how little Internet video usage is reported by Nielsen's rating panel, one wonders how well YouTube's new initiatives will fare---but I wish 'em luck.
Google has been desperate to steal TV ad revenues for well over a decade. (Remember the GoogleTV failure followed by the GoogleTV hardware "meh"?) So it's no surprise she's trying to claim they're recreating TV.
But they aren't. YouTube succeesses don't generally translate well to traditional TV - so far they've lacked the coherence and per second impact to keep an audience entertained for longer periods of time. (Rember Onion's attempt to do a 1/2 hour sports channel show... Really funny online in 2 minute increments. Really bad on TV in 30 minute shows.)
My strategic recommendation to Google is that YouTube should try to replace TV - it should go and do what it does well and continue to push the envelope with what it is. But sure looks like the Google team has an ego problem with traditional TV - desperate to claim they've killed it or exceeded. (And the revenue must be enticing when you're stock's sucking wind from slow growth.)
Ed you are obsessed with the Nielsen panel. You do realize the action graph from the UI has the realtime analytics.
Doug the Major Broadcast newtorks are not known as technology innovators and ceratinly not on mobile. It is TV that is being innovated by Others. Naturally the as revenue pie will follow where innovation brings the viewers.
Leonard, I'm a frequent critic of the Nielsen peoplemeter panel when it comes to viewing as opposed to tuning, particularly regarding its ability to define commercial minute "viewing". I have also raised the question about a panel of this nature having a possible heavy viewer bias. And I'm certainly no dedicated fan of the so-called "portable peoplemeter" methodology Nielsen got when it bought Arbitron.
That said, I've been around for quite a while and both done and evaluated numerous quanititative and qualitative studies of the media---TV in particular. I know from all of these experiences that human respondents do not give nearly as valid descriptions of their actual audience behavior as one gets by using a mechanical measurement---like Nielsen's set usage tracking. Invariably, human respondents overstate behavior that enhances their image; invariably, they understate audience activities for less involving content they watched only portions of or irregularly; invariably they "forget" what they actually did and offer stylized or impressionistic answers. That's human nature.
My point is that while I and others have legitimate concerns about Nielsen's methodology and its efforts to measure all types of video exposure in all locations, as well as the recent data attribution plan for local market ratings, it's still the best measurement of TV set usage and---with qualifications--viewing that is available. When Nielsen reports that 85% of the average "Millennials'" total TV viewing is done on a live basis while some hastily slapped together poll of human respondents says---or suggests---that the real figure may be as low as 35%, I'll go with Nielsen, even if I have reservations as to its ability to provide a perfectly accurate picture.