The ongoing writers' strike has seen Americans turn to online alternatives. According to Nielsen some online video sites have seen their audience double since the strike began at the end of October last year. Clearly Americans are spending more time on YouTube and other similar destinations. A study released by Pew Internet and American Life Project finds the number of web users who watch video online grew 45% between late 2006 and 2007. Forty eight percent of web users now visit video sharing web sites.
Contributing to the rise is the spread of broadband and the increasing volume and range of content on these sites. The internet has clearly become a medium of diversion, entertainment and education as well, apart from its utility function.
Men are more likely to use video sharing sites-53% compared to 43% for women. The increase in traffic is driven by youngsters with 70% of those under 30 using such sites.About 22% of Americans now shoot their own videos with 14% of them posting it online.Now that many cellphones have video capabilities, making videos is now an almost spontaneous act. Video sharing sites are working closely with news channels to promote interactive content. The Democratic presidential debate hosted on YouTube along with CNN is an example.
Dailynation is perhaps the world's largest independent video entertainment website.Every day, over 15,000 new videos are uploaded onto Dailynation's global network of localized video entertainment sites. It claims to receive about 32.3 million unique users every month.
One of the pioneers in the field Metcafe which boasts 19 million unique users every month has created a 'producer rewards' program that gives $5 to video creators for every 1000 visitors they get. With competition between rival sites rising, both content and rewards for users are bound to increase.