• February 5, 2009

U.S. Internet users viewed a record 14.3 billion online videos during the month of December, according to new data from the comScore Video Metrix service. That number represents an increase of 13% versus the previous month.

Not surprisingly, YouTube led the growth charge, accounting for 49% of the incremental gain in videos viewed versus November.

In December, Google sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with 5.9 billion videos viewed--41% of the online video market share--with YouTube accounting for more than 99% of all videos viewed at the property.

Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 445 million videos--3.1%--followed by Yahoo Sites with 330 million--2.3%--and Viacom Digital with 291 million--2%.

Hulu, the joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., continued its growth trajectory--climbing 6% versus November to 241 million videos viewed.

Nearly 150 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 96 videos per viewer in December. Google sites surpassed 100 million online video viewers during the month, representing two of every three Internet users who watched video.

Fox Interactive ranked second with 56.9 million viewers, followed by Yahoo Sites with 42.8 million, and AOL with 31.5 million.--Gavin O'Malley