Nearly seven in ten (69%) adult Internet users—or 52% of US adults—now use the Internet to watch or download video content, and 14% have uploaded video to the Internet—nearly double the 8% who did so in 2007—according to a report by the Pew Research Center.
In addition, 61% of adult Internet users now watch video content on video-sharing sites, such as YouTube or Google Video, up from 33% in December 2006.
Below, other finding s from The State of Online Video, issued by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Men, young adults, the more affluent, and the more educated are most likely to watch video online or on a video-sharing site. For example, 78% of surveyed adults age 18-29 say they watch online video, compared with 66% of those age 30-49 and 45% of those age 50+.
Fully seven in ten Internet users who watch online video have some college education (70%) and annual household incomes of $75,000+ (71%).
Meanwhile, men are nearly twice as likely as women to download video files to watch at a later time, 28% vs. 17%.
What Are Consumers Watching?
Comedic and humorous videos are the most popular type of content, now viewed by 50% of adult Internet users, up from 31% in 2007. News videos follow in popularity, viewed by 43% of Internet users (up from 37%).
Viewership of movies and TV show videos doubled, to 32% in 2009 from 16% in 2007, as did viewership of political videos, to 30% from 15%.
As in 2007, younger adults are drawn more than older adults to entertainment content, such as funny videos, music videos, movies or TV shows, sports video , and adult content. For example, among online video watchers, 93% of adults age 18-29 say they have watched a comedy video online, as do 74% of those age 30-49 and 52% of those age 50+.
Older video watchers, by contrast, are more likely than those age 18-29 to watch news videos and educational videos, whereas political videos have fairly consistent appeal across online video watchers of all ages.
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Video Uploading, Sharing Platforms
Video creation has become a big part of online life: 21% of those who watch video online also post video.
Home videos are most popular type of content posted online, shared by 62% of video uploaders, followed by travel videos (24%), clips from TV shows or movies (24%), cultural performances (17%), and sporting events (15%).
Regarding sharing platforms, online video uploaders are nearly as likely to share video on social networking sites (52%), such as Facebook, as they are on more specialized video-sharing sites (49%), such as YouTube.
Some 12% also share on news websites and 12% use peer-to-peer file-sharing applications, especially effective for distributing very large software and media files.
Video uploading is more common among younger adults: 19% of Internet users age 18-49 say they have uploaded a video online; 10% of Internet users age 50+ say they have done so.
Although 2007 data showed that young Internet users were most likely to upload video—with that activity concentrated among those age 18-29—today, Internet users age 30-49 are nearly just as likely as the youngest adults to upload video: 17% of them now say they have uploaded video online, compared with just 6% who said so in 2007.
About the data: This report is based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, June 18-21, 2009 among 1,005 US adults, age 18+.
