Mar 07 2008
Youtube Analytics coming Q2 2008
Undoubtedly one of the major speed bumps preventing widespread monetization of online video is the absence of reliable analytics.
The methodology favored by distributors such as Brightcove involves measuring megabytes downloaded rather than minutes watched. In these days of tabbed browsing and hi-speed connections this will invariably overstate viewing figures, in some cases by as much as 2000% or more.
Youtube measures minutes watched - but the only statisitics it makes available to producers and marketers is the number of times a video is watched from beginning end - partial views don’t get counted.
This is set to change next quarter:
“The online video site plans to make more granular metrics available in this year’s second and third quarters, including data about the usage of YouTube videos that are embedded in external sites, said Brian Cusack, YouTube sales team manager.
“YouTube has enormous amounts of data, but not great reporting on that data yet,” Cusack said during a keynote speech at the eRetailer Summit in Miami on Monday.
YouTube, which gets about a third of its traffic from the U.S. and has almost 20 country-specific sites, is building models to distinguish content that is universally interesting from content that is locally interesting, in order to make that useful for its advertising customers, Cusack said. “That’s an enormous initiative for us in 2008,” he said, adding that YouTube is very interested in working with retailers with international marketing strategies.” insideonlinevideo
No details as to the statistics YouTube will be providing, or as to how they will be made available. At the moment the “number of views” figure is published for everyone to see, which can make publishing videos on YouTube somewhat embarrassing for smaller news organizations, amongst others.
