14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube has clearly changed the way people consume video and not just online. The short, mostly user-created, videos became representative of the era. They showed that people were ready for something new, bite-size videos, perfect for the online environment. But now, even YouTube is wondering if the change has been for the better.
One of the site’s biggest concerns is that its users don’t actually spend that long on it. It may have a massive audience, but the average viewer spends 15 minutes per day on YouTube watching six videos. That’s compared with the five hours of TV they watch every day. YouTube is working to change that though, by several means.
The first one is also the most straightforward. The site has received several changes, especially with the recent revamp, to encourage users to watch more videos in a row. The related video suggestions are featured more prominently and the underlying technology behind them has been improved to make them more relevant.
“We’re looking at how to push users into passive-consumption mode, a lean-back experience,” Jamie Davidson, a YouTube product manager, told the New York Times while explaining YouTube's recent drive to increase viewing time.
Several user-interface and user-experience tweaks are also aimed at keeping users lured in for longer. The ‘autoplay’ button that shows up in playlists is one example. In most cases, autoplay is set to ‘off’ by default, but the hope is that people will sit back and let the videos roll.
Still, even with all the tweaks, the professional content and new way of presenting it that caters to a viewer's specific needs, the short length of the videos is their biggest drawback when it comes to engagement. The end of each video is an opportunity for the user to go somewhere else, no matter how seamless they make the experience.
One response to this is longer professional content. Regular videos are capped at ten minutes on YouTube, but partners can upload longer ones in certain circumstances. YouTube’s rental program is one example of this. The catalogue of videos available for paid streaming on the site is still growing and YouTube hopes that the store will become an alternative to existing rental options. So far, the shows and movies available don’t really appeal to a great audience, but things may change as new content is added and users become more accustomed to the idea of paying for a YouTube video.
Google is not waiting around for that to happen, though, with the recently unveiled Google TV and the accompanying YouTube Leanback, the company is looking to bring YouTube to the living room and make watching online videos back-to-back as easy as it is to watch TV. The videos play straight away and Leanback requires very little interaction from the user.
There’s a good reason behind YouTube’s drive to keep users glued to their screens, the longer they stay, the more ads the site can serve them. And, for a site that has been struggling to become profitable for the past five years, anything that can drive more ad revenue is a good thing. It’s expected that YouTube be profitable this year, but whether people will view online video, especially on YouTube, as equivalent to regular TV watching remains to be seen.