YouTube Makes Detailed Statistics Public for Videos

YouTube's huge user numbers and monthly views can make for some interesting statistics for those interested. The site offers a lot of data to the uploaders through the YouTube Insight, the free analytics tool, like traffic numbers and geographical or demographic information of the viewers but those are hidden from the public. Of course, some basic info is already available, like the total number of views, but YouTube has decided to let uploaders share their full stats with the world by making them public on the videos they choose.

“That's why today we're giving you the ability to make some information collected in Insight available publicly to anyone watching your videos on YouTube,” Kenny Stoltz, product manager at YouTube, said. “Now when you watch a video, you can learn even more about it and its audience: on the watch page, under the "Statistics & Data" section, you will be able to see metrics about a video's views over time, its popularity in different parts of the world, the top drivers of traffic, and the video's top three audience demographics.”

Users have the possibility to turn on the feature for the new videos they upload as well as the ones already on YouTube. Of course there is also the option to turn it on or off for all their videos by changing the privacy settings. The statistics could prove interesting for the more curious users and maybe even help create a more focused audience but the real benefits are for YouTube partners as they could attract advertisers showing them in which regions the videos are popular and which age groups enjoy them the most.

As far as the statistics available, the list isn't very long but they should provide enough information for most cases. Apart from the expected views, comments and ratings data there is also a geographical distribution map, some basic demographics and, most interestingly, referral information showing how the video is spreading online.