The popularity of the Internet over the past decade has not only paved the way for more daily entertainment but also for more advertising from corporate giants. According to comScore, a leader in measuring several aspects of the digital world, online video is still growing its presence in the United States. The company recently announced that data from its Video Metrix service showed 189 million U.S. Internet users watched 49.1 billion online videos in October, up from 36.2 billion in January.
As usual, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) sites generated the highest number, with 16.6 billion videos. Google also easily logged the highest average engagement among the top online properties, with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) coming in a distant second. Video ads, often a requirement for viewing online videos, reached 24.5 billion views in October, up slightly from 22.9 billion views in September, reaching a new all-time high. Video ads reached 56 percent of the total U.S. population.
Let’s take a look at the top eight U.S. online video content properties ranked by unique video viewers in October. Most of the companies featured are outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) and S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) this year.
8. Microsoft sites (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Unique viewers: 38.9 million
Year-to-date performance: 41.7 percent
7. Yahoo sites (NASDAQ:YHOO)
Unique viewers: 42.3 million
YTD performance: 78.2 percent
6. Amazon sites (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Unique viewers: 44.3 million
YTD performance: 47.2 percent
5. VEVO (NYSE:SNE)
Unique viewers: 49.6 million
YTD performance: 65.2 percent
4. News Distribution Network
Unique viewers: 50.6 million
NDN is a leading-edge digital video and advertising solutions company. Its syndication and advertising model distributes professional multimedia content from trusted brands to high-quality digital publishers. It is not a publicly traded company, but current employees hail from CBS, CNN, Condé Nast, Cox, Discovery, Turner Broadcasting, and elite individual properties like AJC.com, NOLA.com, and WashingtonPost.com.
3. AOL (NYSE:AOL)
Unique viewers: 62.3 million
YTD performance: 55.8 percent
2. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)
Unique viewers: 70.1 million
YTD performance: 84.1 percent
1. Google sites (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Unique viewers: 164.8 million
YTD performance: 46.1 percent
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