UK Internet traffic to online video websites increased by 178% between February 2007 and 2008. A Hitwise custom category of the top 25 video websites in the UK accounted for 2.22% of all UK Internet visits in February 2008, equivalent for one in every 45 Internet visits last month.

YouTube is the most popular video site in the UK and the eighth most visited website overall. The combined market share of its US and UK properties in February was 69.31% of all UK Internet visits to the custom category. One of the key reasons for YouTube’s success is the strength of its brand. The fourth and fifth most popular search terms in the UK during February were ‘youtube’ and ‘you tube’. The international nature of its content also plays a role: YouTube Poland was the 24th most visited video website in the UK last month, for example.

The third most visited video website in the UK during February was BBC iPlayer. The Beeb’s catch-up TV streaming service has increased its market share of UK Internet visits by 423% since December 2007, and is now the 50th most visited website in the UK overall. In February, iPlayer was the fifth most visited BBC online property in the UK after BBC News (UK rank in February 2008: 9th), the BBC Homepage (12th), BBC Sport (18th) and BBC Weather Centre (30th).

MySpaceTV was the fourth most visited video site in the UK during February, illustrating the close link between video websites and social networking. In addition to YouTube and MySpaceTV, there are a number of other video sharing websites gaining market share in the UK, such as MetaCafe and Tudou. Even video sites that don’t rely on user-generated content receive a significant amount of traffic from social networks. In February, UK video sites received 16.28% of their traffic from Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, the three most popular social networks in the UK.

Video search is also on the rise in the UK. One in every 40 searches in the UK during February 2008 resulted in a visit to a video site, up from one in every 117 a year before. Nearly one-third of all traffic to the top 25 video sites in the UK comes from search engines, and the range and variety of videos that people are searching for continues to increase. You can find more analysis on the success of ‘videopedia’ sites such as Videojug here.

Robin Goad

Robin Goad is Research Director, Hitwise UK. This piece was originally published on Hitwise analyst blog here.

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