YouTube hits 4 billion daily views
2012-01-23 22:36
San Francisco - YouTube, Google's video website, is streaming 4 billion online videos every day, a 25% increase in the past eight months, according to the company.
The jump in video views comes as Google pushes YouTube beyond the personal computer, with versions of the site that work on smartphones and televisions, and as the company steps up efforts to offer more professional-grade content on the site.
According to the company, roughly 60 hours of video is now uploaded to YouTube every minute, compared with the 48 hours of video uploaded per minute in May.
YouTube, which Google acquired for $1.65bn in 2006, represents one of Google's key opportunities to generate new sources of revenue outside its traditional internet search advertising business.
Last week, Google said that its business running graphical "display" ads - many of which are integrated alongside YouTube videos - was generating $5bn in revenue on an annualised run rate basis.
Still, most of the 4 billion videos that YouTube now streams worldwide every day do not make money. Three billion YouTube videos a week are monetised, according to the company.
YouTube recently redesigned its website to more prominently showcase specialised "channels" organized around different types of content.
In October, YouTube announced that it had struck 100 original video programming deals with media partners including Madonna and Jay-Z.
Thomson Reuters and YouTube recently announced a partnership to create a Reuters TV channel for the website.
