Comparing Video Sharing Sites
We all know that YouTube is the gorilla in the room but is it the right video sharing site for you? Maybe you’re a video blogger? Maybe you like to create short “How To” videos?
Luckily there are niche video sharing sites for virtually every type of video content out there. More than I could possibly profile here. Thanks to TubeMogul Research & Quantcast for providing much of the data needed for this profile. Here’s my breakdown with statistics and demographics for 15 of the more popular sites in alphabetical order:
5 Min.com
Description: Short “How-To” videos (under “5min”) that answer practical questions.
Gender Demographic: Male 55% / Female 45%
Age Demographic: 17% – 12-17 yrs / 33% – 18-34 yrs / 28% – 35-49 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 366,ooo
Blip.tv
Description: Publisher-friendly video sharing and distribution site with an integrated video blogging platform.
Gender Demographic: Male 57% / Female 43%
Age Demographic: 33% – 18-34 yrs / 33% – 35-49 yrs / 28% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 1.8 million
Monthly US Traffic: 766,000
Brightcove
Description: Great quality video with an easy to use, quick, user interface. Largely high-income and college-educated users.
Gender Demographic: Male 50% / Female 50%
Age Demographic: Evenly distributed between 18-34 yrs and 35-49 yrs age brackets.
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 1.9 million
** Should be noted that Brightcove is no longer a video sharing site (as mentioned in the comments) as of December 2008 and now is focused exclusively as a video hosting and distribution platform since January 2009. You can utilize their platform to upload to sharing sites such as Veoh.**
Crackle
Description: Easy to use but video quality could be better particularly since it is positioned as a multi-platform next-generation video network owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Gender Demographic: Male 50% / Female 50%
Age Demographic: 19% – 12-17 yrs / 39% – 18-34 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 2.5 million
Dailymotion
Description: Dubbed the “YouTube of Europe,” it’s a fairly simple and straight forward user interface but hasn’t developed a real community in the US…yet.
Gender Demographic: Male 59% / Female 41%
Age Demographic: 12% – 12-17 yrs / 40% – 18-34 yrs / 29% – 35-49 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 48.2 million
Monthly US Traffic: 7.2 million
Google Video
Description:Why would you go to Google Video when there is (and Google owns) YouTube? Poor video quality leave this a brand for video search, not really for new video discovery.
Gender Demographic: Male 53% / Female 47%
Age Demographic: 26% – 12-17 yrs / 32% – 18-34 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 7.5 million
Metacafe
Description:One of the world’s largest video sites that specializes in short form video content from both new emerging talent and Hollywood’s heavy hitters. Uniquely controlled by the user community so if you have a good community, you can get your videos on the front page.
Gender Demographic: Male 58% / Female 42%
Age Demographic: 16% – 12-17 yrs / 36% – 18-34 yrs / 28% – 35-49 yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 43.5 million
Monthly US Traffic: 13 million
Motionbox
Description: One of the few video sharing sites that offers an option to securely share your videos with friends & family. After AOL Video shut down, they recommended their users to transfer their videos to Motionbox.
Gender Demographic: Male 52% / Female 48%
Age Demographic: 26% – 18-34 yrs / 31% – 35-49 yrs / 23% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 268,000
Monthly US Traffic: 144,000
Revver
Description: Revver pretty much started revenue sharing for video content providers. They connect makers, sharers, and sponsors of internet video in a free and open marketplace that rewards them for doing what they do best.
Gender Demographic: Male 57% / Female 43%
Age Demographic: 36% – 18-34 yrs / 30% – 35-49 yrs / 23% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: Unavailable
Monthly US Traffic: 779,000
Ustream.tv
Description: Live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size.
Gender Demographic: Male 55% / Female 45%
Age Demographic: 34% – 18-34 yrs / 33% – 35-49 yrs / 22% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 6.6 million
Monthly US Traffic: 1.4 million
Veoh
Description:Focused on full-screen video programming for anyone with a broadband connection. Site lacks a sense of social community.
Gender Demographic: Male 56% / Female 44%
Age Demographic: evenly distributed audience across all age brackets.
Monthly Global Traffic: 12 million
Monthly US Traffic: 4 million
Viddler
Description:Coolest player interface with features like comments tied to a particular time in the video and automatic webcam synch.
Gender Demographic: Male 56% / Female 44%
Age Demographic: 39% – 18-34 yrs / 28% – 35-49 yrs / 20% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 2.1 million
Monthly US Traffic: 726,000
Vimeo
Description:Completely user-generated content used heavily by videobloggers and podcasters. Really quick upload and very hip interface. Largely high-income and college-educated users.
Gender Demographic: Male 65% / Female 35%
Age Demographic: N/A
Monthly Global Traffic: 9.5 million
Monthly US Traffic: 3.6 million
Yahoo! Video
Description: Entertainment-oriented video site. Unfortunately not yet fully integrated with all of Yahoo!’s community destinations and so really missing out on the social aspect to their service.
Gender Demographic: Male 55% / Female 45%
Age Demographic: 16% – 12-17 yrs / 41% – 18-34 yrs / 25% – 35-49 yrs / 16% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 3.2 million
Monthly US Traffic: 1.8 million
YouTube
Description: Unless you live under a rock you know who YouTube is. Their strong user base and community offers the greatest opportunity to both go viral in a big way…but also to get lost quickly.
Gender Demographic: Male 50% / Female 50%
Age Demographic: 19% – 12-17 yrs / 36% – 18-34 yrs / 23% – 35-49 yrs / 19% – 50+ yrs
Monthly Global Traffic: 80.6 million
Monthly US Traffic: 69.3 million
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[...] YouTube experience. For a list of fifteen video sites, with usage and demographic information, check out the posting on the Smart Market Media blog. They’ve done a nice job compiling relevant information to help you learn about YouTube [...]
Thanks for compiling this list!
A couple notes, though. Google Video is no longer accepting new video submissions, as Google also owns YouTube and that’s a more appropriate venue for uploads. Also, Brightcove shut down its video sharing site (brightcove.tv) and is now solely a video platform.
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Eric Guerin
Reply:
March 25th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Hi Marina – Thanks! Actually Google Video is technically still accepting videos but they will be discontinuing the service in a few months to become more of a video search service but at the time of this writing it still remains one of the largest video sharing sites available…although I agree that YouTube is a better option. You can read more about the changes going on to Google Video at What’s going on with Google Video uploads? Of course they have been threatening this shut down for a while but haven’t taken any action to do so…yet.
Good call on the Brightcove.tv shut down though, I had forgotten they shut down the sharing side of their site in December of 2008. They are exclusively a video hosting and distribution platform since January 2009. When you use their platform you can upload to sharing sites such as Veoh and Bebo (which I didn’t mention here).
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Mon
Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Hi, Eric. Great stuff. Would you know where I could get Youtube stats for Asian countries? Also, when you say “Traffic” above, you mean pageviews, right?
Thanks!
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Eric Guerin
Reply:
April 20th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Hi Mon!
No traffic is referring to unique visitors not page views which makes the statistics even more impressive.
As for specifically obtaining YouTube Statistics for Asian countries, about the closest I could “reliably” recommend is their profile on Alexa As you can see here, Japan is the second most popular country after the United States and the others fall well below this. Hope this helps!