The FINANCIAL — The percent of American adult internet users who upload or post video online has doubled in the pastfour years, from 14% in 2009 to 31% today, a national survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project shows.
Younger adult internet users are twiceas likely as their older counterparts to post and share videos online. While 41% of 18-29 year-old internet usersand 36% of 30-49 year-old internet users post or share videos online, the sameis true of just 18% of internet users age 50 and older.
“Since 2006, we’ve seen consistentincreases year-to-year in the percentage of adults who watch videos online, but this survey marks the largest increasewe’ve seen in the percent of adults who are postingvideos online,” said Kristen Purcell, Associate Director of Research at thePew Internet Project and the author of the report. “As the online video culture grows—fueled by video-sharingsites, mobile phones, and online social networking—posting videos online isbecoming a mainstream online behavior,” Purcell added.
The 18% of online adults who share theirown videos online are much more likely to post mundane, everyday content thanto post something they have staged or scripted. The most common subject matter for those who post their own videosonline is friends and family doing everyday things (58% of this group post thiskind of content), followed closely by videos of themselves or others doingfunny things (56%) or videos of events they have attended (54%).
In contrast, just 23% of this group post a video they have intentionally staged, scripted or choreographed, and 30% posteducational or tutorial videos they have recorded themselves.
Among all adults who post or sharevideos online, both their own videos and those created by others, 35% say theyhave posted or shared a video online with the hope of it being seen by manypeople or “going viral.” That equates to 11% of all adult internet users. Just 5% of adults who post videos online say they regret a video they have posted inthe past, according to Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The percent of online adults who watchor download videos has also grown over the past four years, from 69% of adultinternet users in 2009 to 78% today.
Video-sharing sites like YouTube havebeen the main driving force in the increasing percentage of online adults whopost, watch and download videos. Since2006, the percent of online adults who use video-sharing sites has grown from33% to the current figure of 72%, the report says.
“Online video consumption continues to be concentrated among the youngest onlineadults, and those with higher education and income levels, but over time it hasgrown substantially among virtually all groups of online adults. Rates ofonline video watching are extremely high among online adults age 18-29 (95%)and those age 30-49 (87%), yet even among internet users age 50 and older morethan half (58%) are now online video consumers,” said Kristen Purcell, author.
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