Why Small Business Needs Online Video

Posted by jathey on May 25, 2010 0 Comments

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In short: because your target market demands it.

The amount of online video that people are watching continues to skyrocket, which means that it is another way for you to get in front of your customers. Let me throw some numbers at you..

Today, 71% of the US online audience watches video on the Internet, and the number of streams consumed should more than double by 2013 (Forrester, 2009). While the large media and entertainment companies may have been the first to integrate video into their Web sites, organizations of all sizes across all industries are increasingly adopting video on their Web sites.

Online video consumption, by consumers and businesses alike, continues to be one of the highest growth sectors in technology today. Nielsen estimated the growth of online video views at 16% – for a 6 month time span (Nielsen Online, 2009). According to E-Marketer online video ads will grow by a factor of 10 by 2013 (E-Marketer, 2009). ComScore said more than 146 million US Internet users watched an average of 87 videos per viewer in November 2008—that’s 77% of the total US Internet audience and 34% increase in online video viewing from last year (ComScore, 2009).

The growth rates for the number of consumers worldwide with the ability to watch online video also is forecast to grow: researcher iSuppli Corp. in El Segundo, California, estimates consumers worldwide will have 376.5 million devices that can receive Web video content by 2013, up from 94.8 million now.

With this explosion in online video consumption the question has shifted from “can I afford online video” to “can I afford NOT to have online video?” And you can bet your competitors are asking the same question.