Previous |
Next |
January 10, 2008, 01:43 PM ET
Pew Study Shows Use of Video-Sharing Sites on the Rise
A growing number of Internet users are making YouTube and other video-sharing sites part of their surfing routine, according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. About 48 percent of Net users surveyed by the group in December said they had been to a video-sharing site, up from 33 percent of users surveyed the previous year. The demographic most likely to use YouTube-style sites are those aged 18-29, the survey found. Seventy percent of people in that age group said they had.
“My hunch is that college students are pretty much leading the pack on this,” said Lee Rainie, director of the project, in an interview.
The latest survey did not ask what types of videos people were watching. But a survey the group conducted last spring found that 22 percent of Internet users had watched an educational video online (the most popular category was news, followed by comedy).
Mr. Rainie said that educational videos are a growing segment of what’s available on YouTube and other sites. “In the earliest days of video online it tended to be either news or viral amateur stuff,” he said. Now that high-speed networking is more widespread and video equipment is cheaper, new types of videos are emerging, including educational ones, he said. Other hot video categories are spiritual material, do-it-yourself guides, and amateur news, he said. —Jeffrey R. Young
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.