YouTube Promoted Videos Hit 1 Billion Views
This week YouTube Promoted Videos have hit a huge milestone—they have now reached one billion views globally.
Back in November of 2008, YouTube’s Promoted Videos concept was born. Creators could pay to have their videos highlighted at the top of YouTube search results pages and in suggested videos for maximized visibility and viewership. This week YouTube Promoted Videos have hit a huge milestone—they have now reached one billion views globally.
One billion is a huge number, but one that YouTube has made its friend. The site streams over three billion videos each and every day and they are racking up 3 billion ad views per week, thanks to their Partner Program. It should come as no surprise that Promoted Videos have now hit the one billion-view mark. However, when you take a look back at the growth of Promoted Videos, the rate is pretty impressive.
YouTube Software Engineer Jonathan Goldman writes on the YouTube blog, “In November of 2008, we began to dabble with a feature that you and advertisers could use to make videos easier to find, since at the time you were uploading 13 hours of video every minute. The feature was Sponsored Videos, and we soon changed the name to what you know today as Promoted Videos Flash forward to 2011—we’re talking about 48 hours of video uploaded every minute, and Promoted Videos have now reached one billion views globally.”
So, from this statement it can be inferred that Promoted Video views jumped from zero in November of 2008 to one billion today. Then, take into consideration the fact that YouTube announced that Promoted Videos has hit the 500 million view mark at the end of October of 2010. It took them nearly two full years to reach the first 500 million, and only nine months to double that. Not only are more people are paying to promote their videos, but more viewers are watching.
Check out the video below to find out more about Promoted Videos. The video is a bit outdated (it’s from April 2009), but still does a good job of explaining the concept. What do you think about these statistics? Do they inspire you to pay to promote one of your videos?
Megan O’Neill is the resident web video enthusiast here at Social Times. Megan covers everything from the latest viral videos to online video news and tips, and has a passion for bizarre, original and revolutionary content and ideas.
