In an article about YouTube’s continuing growth, the New York times reports:

Interestingly, the top 10 video sites accounted for less than half of all videos viewed online. That means people are watching video here, there and everywhere on the Web. And they’re doing so more every day.

During November, 138 million people, or about three-quarters of Internet users in the United States, watched on average 3 hours and 15 minutes of online video, or 45 minutes more than they watched in January.

There are two important take-aways here.  First, Internet video is experiencing broad-based growth.  Not only are more people (75% of Internet users) watching video, they’re watching it all over the place — at news sites, entertainment sites, advertising, and (increasingly) retail sites.

Second, there’s tremendous room for growth in online video viewership. The average viewership number is skewed, the Times notes, by the early adopters — people who view TONS of online video.  These are the people who started “snacking” on video in the last couple years, and now make online video part of their core entertainment pattern.  This means that there’s baby boom coming.  As the average consumer gets more used to online video, and as the technology gets better, you’re going to see a massive expansion in viewership.

Filed under: YouTube, market size, video