Most Online Videos Are Watched on Computers

5/3/2013

Online videos are most likely to be watched via computer (89.6% of all videos started), according to Adobe Systems. Tablets account for 6.5% of videos started, and smartphones for 3.9%. Although mobiles’ share of online video viewing remains small, the number of videos viewed on mobile devices grew 300% in 2012.

Smartphone viewing rises and falls during the week, with the highest rates on Monday, Thursday, and Sunday. Tablet viewing, on the other hand, peaks on Saturdays and Sundays. Smartphones tend to be used for viewing short clips, such as sports or news-related content, while tablets are used for longer viewing sessions, such as for movies or TV programs.

Viewers are more likely to finish watching a whole video when watching TV programs or related media than they are to finish watching other types of video, especially if they’re viewing on mobile devices.

Videos found through a referral from social media are more likely than other videos to be watched in their entirety, as well. Most videos are found by going directly to the video site (65%) or through online search (30%), however. Facebook accounts for 75% of the videos viewed that were found through social media referrals, Twitter accounts for 16%, and all other social networks combined account for 9%.

Online video ads are most likely to be watched if they’re posted in the middle of the video stream (91% viewed in fourth-quarter 2012) or before the video begins (76%). Just under six in 10 ads placed at the ends of videos (59%) were viewed in fourth-quarter 2012. Ads longer than two minutes are somewhat more likely to be viewed in their entirety than those under two minutes (73% vs. 65%).

Source: “The U.S. Digital Video Benchmark,” Q1 2013, Adobe Digital Index, Jeremy Helfand, VP Video, 345 Park Ave., San Jose, CA 95110; 408-536-6000; digindex@adobe.com or jhelfand@adobe.com; www.adobe.com.

© 2013 Business Valuation Resources, LLC (BVR). May not be reproduced without written consent of publisher.

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