YouTube Reaches a Billion Video Views Per Day
About six months ago I wondered when YouTube would reach a billion video views per day. In that blog posting I included a poll listing four possible dates. The second of these choices listed August, 2008.
Well, wouldn't you know it, YouTube is ahead of schedule. The Wall Street Journal announced this week that YouTube currently receives about a billion video views per day. Admittedly, a billion is not a large number, but it points in the direction of a trillion video views per day.
Now, that would be an interesting milestone.
So I ought to throw up a new poll asking people when they expect the trillion video views per date milestone to be reached. This is an exercise in extrapolation.
Currently, most YouTube viewers view about 5 to 10 videos per day. (I recall reading that figure somewhere -- sorry, I don't have a source.) Can you imagine that rising? Yes, the daily views per person might well rise -- perhaps even by a factor of two or three.
YouTube video is much more diverse that watching television. Diverse means there are more interesting surprises. People now have a choice between watching boring old television or YouTube. Some will continue watching television with all its predictability, stereotypes and monotony.
A mouse-click away will be the allure of YouTube, where admittedly there are a lot of videos not worth watching. But within that large amount of chaff is some very fine wheat. It's fun separating the wheat from the chaff. YouTube gives you good tools for doing that, including subscribing to your favorite YouTube uploaders and browsing thru the subscriptions of other YouTube members. Not to mention browsing thru the videos of people who subscribe to the videos you yourself make and upload to YouTube.
You mean you haven't made any videos and uploaded them to YouTube? For shame! That would be roughly equivalent to saying that you hadn't taken any photos in the year 1910 -- ten years after Kodak introduced the Brownie camera in February, 1900.
I haven't forgotten the poll I promised you earlier in this blog posting. What's your best estimate on when YouTube will reach a trillion video views per day?
I wish I could report the names of the people who correctly estimated the previous poll. I'm putting in a request to PollDaddy for them to add that feature.
Maybe they'll add the feature before the trillion video views per day milestone is reached. They shouldn't dawdle, though. Mark my words, that day is going to reach us sooner than anyone expects.
Phil Shapiro
The blogger is an adjunct professor of education and a technology commentator in the Washington DC-area. He stopped watching television two years ago and invites others to enrich their lives in a similar way. He can be reached at: philshapiroblogger@gmail.com
Prior blog postings -
YouTube Reaches a Billion Video Views per Day
After Lightning Strikes, One iMac Becomes Two
It Feels Like Freedom is Coming
Book Review - Google SketchUp for Dummmies
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As Everett Dirksen was attributed to say (about money, anyway), "A Billion here, a Billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."
To reach a trillion videos a day every person on the planet would have to watch more than 147 videos a day. Not to mention only a small portion of the world population own computers or have access to the internet. My prediction is that youtube will reach a trillion videos. . .never.