September 26th, 2006
No, My Space video traffic is NOT kicking You Tube in the
Marketwatch’s Bambi Francisco cites comScore Media Metrix’s July numbers to make the assertion that MySpace video is kickin’ YT’s video content in the you-know-where.
"This is pretty significant considering that YouTube and Google Video have gotten all the press when it comes to who’s garnering the biggest video-viewing audiences," writes Francisco, who is based in the city by the Bay that shares a last name with her. "But now that third-party figures are available for individual sites, we’re beginning to see who’s actually attracting those coveted eyeballs. "
The raw numbers: 1.459 billion (yes, with a "b") streams initiated on MySpace, and "only" 649 million on YouTube.
But I believe a raw read on those raw numbers is the wrong way to look at these data sets. Sets which when directly lined up with each other are like comparing apples and tomatoes, in my haughty opinion.
First of all, MySpace has the advantage of a far larger user and visitor base. All those "1.459 billion" video streams served are likely to be viewed by MySpace member’s friends rather than via eyeballs specifically drawn to a specific resource like YouTube.
To put it another way, those YouTube site visitors are there because they have either been sent a video link via email or IM, have seen a video link included on a blog (like mine-SSP I know), or are combing for specific content via a search engine or YT’s highly efficient internal search function.
MySpace visitors, I believe, are more apt to go to a MySpace site for social reasons- and then check out the video on the sites they visit as part of the overall friends-visit experience.
To her credit, Francisco does point out the numbers do include You Tube videos embedded in MySpace sites. But although she does make that valid assertion, she then seems to shrug it off. I think this embeddedness further reinforces my point.
Also we see YouTube being used as a video content distribution tool by content creators.
Firally I have yet to be convinced that comScore is accurate about too much. Behind the firewall? They probably aren’t going to be allowed in by your IT administrator.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
