Friday 6 January 2012

The History of Online Video

Ok, this graphic isn’t actually about the entire history of online video: it only covers the past five years. Still, though, the graphic is cleverly made and gives you a real glimpse into the hyper-competitive, hyper-innovative world of online video. Most of the major online video breakthroughs happened in the past five years anyway, so this graphic is adequate in that regard. To create this graphic, the Techsmith team worked with The Blog Herald, and they did a stupendous job, as usual.
The graph first points out that 69% of Internet users download or watch video online. 61% watch movies and TV shows, and 23% download videos. The graphic then goes on to present facts that take no one by surprise. 18-29 year-olds are the heaviest consumers of Internet video. Now, here’s the all important fact. And bad fact if you hoped that video sharing websites were going to make money. Only 4% of users pay to watch content online. Back 2007, that number, surprisingly was higher, as 7% did.
Then the graphic goes into a timeline. Key events include the creation of Youtube in 2005, it’s sale in 2006, and the birth of Revision 3 and Podtec. 2006 was an important year not just because of Youtube’s sale to Google for 1.65 billion (who thinks that Google overpaid by the way?), but also because many people stopped downloading .mov files in 2006 and instead watched videos via flash. 2008, as the graphic displays, was the year that online celebrities started to come into their own (whatever that means). Youtubers like Smosh and Brookers bounced their way into living rooms across the country. In March of 2009, the Streamy Awards honored web series from 2009. The awards show was a complete smash, as youtubers like Smosh and iJustine bagged more awards than they could shake a stick at.
(via @InfographicsList)
online-video-infographic