TechMediaTalk

Who’s watching Online Video? Part 1

Posted on | January 28, 2009

In a prior career in consumer marketing, my team and I spent considerable time and effort analyzing demographics and consumer market segments.  Gen Y was the new market segment that was getting calibrated (I just dated myself revealing that, didn’t I?)  They now go by the term Millennial Generation and are receiving increased attention by marketers and sociologists, as they are starting to enter the work force.  There is another generation that has received much attention, namely the YouTube generation.  Though they are not a bonafide demographic from a text book marketing perspective, they are generally described to be 18-34 years old, mostly male.

Most online video technology companies that I have spoken to describe this as the target audience for most part.  A few months ago, I asked Forrester Research to send me some sample data from their Technographics Research to see if there was some merit to this assumption that many online video companies make.  While the data was sparse and inconclusive (given it was gratis and complementary data – which also prevents me from presenting it here), there was sufficient evidence to validate my doubts.

While the 18-34 ‘mostly male’ demographic is an attractive one as they spend a disproportionate amount of their time on the Internet relative to others, they are by no means the majority of Internet video users.  

Taking a look at the Neilsen Q3 2008 Three Screen Report data a few things can easily be eyeballed: 

 One, there are more women watching online video than men.  This should not be entirely surprising, especially when one considers that there are reportedly more women bloggers and casual online gamers than men.  In fact, there are more women online than men.

Second, in aggregate, whereas the 18-34 age group watches over 3 hours of Internet video a day compared to less than 3 hours for other age groups, the 18-34 constitute 23% of the Internet video population.  The over 34 age group constitutes 62% of the Internet video population.  In aggregate the over 34 group consumes 55% more Internet video than the 18-34 group.

I’ll discuss the implications of this for us in the industry in a subsequent post.

What do you think?  Start a discussion below.

Category: Consumers, Market Data

Comments

3 Responses to “Who’s watching Online Video? Part 1”

  1. Who’s Watching Online Video? Part 2 : TechMediaTalk
    February 12th, 2009 @ 9:13 am

    [...] Part 1 of Who’s Watching Online Video, I discuss some mis-perceptions I have come across of companies and folks in the industry about who [...]

  2. Update on ‘Whose Watching Online Video’ : TechMediaTalk
    February 17th, 2009 @ 7:30 am

    [...] Part 1 and Part 2 of ‘Whose Watching Online Video’ I emphasized the importance of knowing your [...]

  3. Mobile Video still a Ways to Go; Whose Watching Online Video Revisited : TechMediaTalk
    March 25th, 2009 @ 8:16 am

    [...] interesting finding reported from the survey alludes to my earlier post “Who’s Watching Online Video”.  Accenture reports growing numbers of baby boomers compared to Gen Y adoption of mobile media. [...]

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