YouTube Dominated the Online Video Landscape in August

YouTube may still be in the red, though not for long if you take Google's word for it, but it's dominating the video market so clearly that the company could run the site just for the sheer joy of watching Microsoft and the rest of the contenders look like tiny ants from the top of its tower. August tuned out to be another record month for online video in the US with 25 billion views, coming after similarly strong months in June and July and YouTube as usual is on top.

“161 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month, the largest audience ever recorded. Online video reached another all-time high in August with more than 25 billion videos viewed during the month, with Google Sites accounting for more than 10 billion,” the comScore report for the previous month reads.

Google sites have a massive advantage adding over 10 billion views, almost 40 percent of the entire market share and a 1 billion rise from the previous month. YouTube represents 99 percent of those views and the online video site that started it all still rules unchallenged. 40 percent of the market doesn't look like that much on the face of it; after all, Google Search has 60 percent of the search market in the US and even more than that in some countries.

That is until you look at the runner up, Microsoft, which manages to rack up only 2.2 percent of the market with 546 million videos watched last month. Microsoft is followed by a closely packed group with Viacom at 2.1 percent, Hulu, the rising star of professional content sites, at 1.9 percent and it goes down from there.

Over 160 million Americans watched at least one online video in August with the average user viewing 157 videos. Google leads in this metric as well with over 120 million users visiting its sites last month watching 82 videos on average, followed by Microsoft with almost 55 million and 10 videos watched and Yahoo with 51 million viewers and 7 videos watched.