Seven in 10 Adult Internet Users Have Watched or Downloaded Video Online

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 69 percent of adult Internet users have watched or downloaded video online. That represents 52 percent of all adults in the United States.

In addition, video creation has now become a normal part of online life. In fact, 14 percent of adult internet users have uploaded a video to the internet.

“We are seeing a surge in online video watching that is driven by a combination of broadband access, the increasing use of social networking sites, and the popularity of video-sharing sites,” explains Kristen Purcell, Associate Director for Research and author of the Pew Research Center’s report. “To tap into these trends, untold numbers of websites now showcase online video as part of their content.”

Driven by the popularity of online video among 18-29 year-olds, there have been dramatic increases since 2007 in the number of American adults watching:

• • Comedy or humorous videos, rising in viewership from 31 percent of adult internet users in 2007 to 50 percent of adult internet users in the current survey.

 

• • Educational videos, rising in viewership from 22 percent to 38 percent of adult internet users.

 

• • Movies or TV show videos, rising in viewership from 16 percent to 32 percent of adult internet users.

 

• • Political videos, rising in viewership from 15 percent to 30 percent of adult internet users

 

On the other side of the camera, video creation has almost doubled the 8 percent who were uploading video in 2007. Home video is far and away the most popular content posted online, shared by 62 percent of video uploaders. And uploaders are just as likely to share video on social networking sites like Facebook (52 percent do this) as they are on more specialized video-sharing sites like YouTube (49 percent do this).