What company’s the one to beat when it comes to video? That would be YouTube, according to recent analysis by the Association of Online Publishers in Britain, in concert with Deloitte.
The bad news is that online video ad revenue increased a mere 5 percent in the third quarter versus the larger 70 percent growth for the same period a year ago. But news media publishers hope mobile will allow it to wrestle more market penetration from global rivals like the ubiquitous YouTube.
“It is the slowest rate of increase for eight consecutive quarters since autumn 2012 and comes as the advertising clout of YouTube is laid bare by the success of video bloggers including make-up vlogger Zoella,” notes a story on trends in the London Evening Standard. “However, mobile ad revenue, which includes video, continues to grow strongly, rising 56 percent in the quarter. The importance of screen size is reflected in the fact that tablets attract almost three-fifths of online mobile ads.”
In sum, YouTube is the Goliath. But there are a lot of Davids out there clamoring for bigger pieces of the action.
“There has been a huge growth in online video,” noted the association’s managing director Tim Cain. “But most of the spread is going to the big platforms such as YouTube. The particular problem publishers have is, although they have very high-quality content, when it comes to delivering significant volumes of inventory, they’ve been quite challenged.”
