We recently came across an excellent interview on Beet.tv with Ran Harnevo, CEO of video distribution platform 5min.com, which explains in simple language why YouTube viral hit video’s are not actually that important for the professional online video market. In fact the bulk of traffic and monetization actually happens around evergreen content such as how-to video’s, biographies, educational clips and the like, rather than on one-hit-wonder clips.
TechCrunch recently reported similar findings in its article ‘The Long Tail Of Video Sites Capture Half Of All Viewing Minutes‘ which points out that according to comScore’s 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review report, 52% of traffic is consumed on Long Tail video sites beyond the top 25.
long tail video trends