In their latest study on The Global Online Media Landscape, Nielsen Online analyses current online media trends, looking at audience engagement, video, mobile, e-commerce, online advertising and social media, facing the current context of the economic recession.
Trends
Nielsen shows that social media and especially video sites have reshaped the web and the online advertising market. Active Internet users tend to prefer sites that contain more specialized content, such as video and social networking sites, which are the two fastest-growing categories this year.
Since 2003, the time spent on video sites has increased by over 2.000%, and the number of Americans who visit online video sites like YouTube, Blinkx, Nickelodeon and Hulu has climbed 339% over the same time period. “From February 2008 to February 2009, the viewers of online videos grew 10%, the number of streams grew 41%, the streams per user grew 27% and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71%.”
Implications on TV
Obviously, the question arises if this means that the audience is taken away from watching classic TV. According to the study there is no evidence that the Internet is cannibalizing TV use. In fact, Nielsen studies have shown that high consumers of TV are also high consumers of the Internet: "high-intensity media consumers are high intensity media consumers regardless of media type."
Implications on Advertising
The current trend towards watching more online video should drive more advertisers towards this medium, as for social media, so Nielsen, "a monetization formula continues to elude the globe's brightest marketers."
“In recent years, the Internet has changed dramatically as people seek more personalized relationships online,” says Charles Buchwalter, Nielsen Online senior vice president of research and analytics. “In particular, time spent on social networks and video sites has increased astronomically. Advertisers are starting to positively re-assess the value of the online experience and create more meaningful relationships with consumers.”
The fact that Nielsen includes online video and social media in one report indicates that the two are merging. Many video sharing sites already offer interactive features like commenting, rating, sharing and to make the video viewing experience more social.
Videos
Watch the Video on the Global Online Landscape: John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online, summarizes the highlights of the report
See also: The Next generation end user with online video by John Burbank.
