Rivals Are Gaining On YouTube

摘要

It's been a decade since YouTube became the first household name in Internet video. In 2008, at the first NewFronts, an annual online marketing conference, Google-owned YouTube had the overwhelming majority of the viewership. Hulu was new, and Facebook had added videos just the year before. At this year's NewFronts, April 27-May 7 in New York, 34 companies are promoting online shows and vying for ad dollars. While YouTube retains a healthy lead in the $7.8 billion U.S. market for online video ads, it's not keeping pace with rivals' growth. Google's video service attracted 145 million U.S. PC viewers in February, down slightly from 151 million two years ago, according to researcher ComScore. During that time, No. 2 Facebook's PC audience grew about 50 percent, to 91 million. Third-place AOL (67 million) and fourth-place Yahoo! (52 million) have also gained ground. Facebook and Yahoo declined to comment.