YouTube on 27 Feb announced something truly astonishing. Everyday the world watches one billion hours of video footage on its site.
It is hard to imagine what exactly one billion hours looks like, so YouTube explained.
It would take an individual 100,000 years to watch one billion hours. 100,000 years ago our ancestors had not long mastered stone tools. And travelling at the speed of light, 100,000 years would take you to the edge of the Milky Way.
What is, however, truly impressive is that YouTube is focusing on the amount of time taken watching video and not the number of views.
And those numbers outstrip terrestrial and satellite broadcasters.
Professional services firms still only dabble with video. They are missing a trick.
A few years back, we made a big decision at YouTube. While everyone seemed focused on how many views a video got, we thought the amount of time someone spent watching a video was a better way to understand whether a viewer really enjoyed it. It wasn’t an easy call, but we thought it would help us make YouTube a more engaging place for creators and fans. And last year, we hit a big milestone on that journey: people around the world are now watching a billion hours of YouTube’s incredible content every single day!
https://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/02/you-know-whats-cool-billion-hours.html
