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YouTube for Mobile Buzz
Chitika | Pulse
a weekly data analysis medium for the online marketing industry
Issue IX
Chitika | Pulse Archive
Summary.
Interest in YouTube increased in Chitika’s network following YouTube’s release of a new mobile site. Collectively, search queries related to mobile devices and YouTube, comprise 38.31% of Chitika’s relative top 50 search keywords in the past week. This analysis of Chitika’s network data indicates that significant online buzz influences areas of interest among Chitika’s online consumers.
YouTube on the Go.
Since the January 24, 2008 official release of YouTube for Mobile, YouTube has become a hot topic, and the center of significant buzz in the online world.
The new YouTube for Mobile brings an improved version of YouTube’s mobile website, m.youtube.com.
New features offered with YouTube Mobile include; a wider selection of videos (tens of millions that are already available on YouTube.com), as well as mobile access to the user’s own uploaded videos; the ability to interact (share, rate, comment) with other YouTube users from the mobile website; quick video upload time (within moments); and site availability for more countries.
The January release also included the debut of a beta version of a YouTube for Mobile; a Java (J2ME) downloadable application that users actually install on their mobile device* (the mobile website, m.youtube.com, differs as you access it via the mobile phone’s web browser).
YouTube first entered mobile space in May 2006, giving users the ability to upload videos from MMS supported mobile devices. When Apple’s iPhone was released in June 2007, Apple packaged in an application that wirelessly streams YouTube content to the iPhone over Wi-Fi or EDGE networks. Apple concurrently announced that YouTube would go live on Apple TV.
Helio followed Apple’s lead in December of 2007, offering a new YouTube application for their mobile device, Ocean, called HelioUP; a feature that, “enables users to upload videos captured by its camera directly to YouTube without the need for a computer.”
YouTube for All.
January’s YouTube for Mobile general release pulls Apple and Helio from the forefront when it comes to YouTube accessiblity in mobile space. The new YouTube for Mobile gives all mobile users access to YouTube through their respective mobile devices (as long as the carrier supports RTSP streaming).
Chitika Follows the YouTube Buzz.
Online consumers in Chitika’s network have traditionally displayed a high level of interest in mobile devices and mobile accessories; for example, in the last week, mobile device related keywords comprised 22.62% of the relative top 50 search keywords.
An interesting and notable trend, however, arose in Chitika’s network following YouTube for Mobile’s January release.
Data from Chitika’s network indicates that overall interest in YouTube has soared in the weeks following the the release of YouTube for Mobile. YouTube related search has increased two-fold (from the week following the Jan. 08 release, to the third week in Feb. 08) among online consumers in Chitika’s network.
In the week following YouTube’s January release (Feb. 4-11), YouTube related search queries comprised 7.32% percent of the top 50 keywords in Chitika’s network. Network data from the following week (Feb. 12-18), describes that YouTube related keywords made up 12.89% of top 50 keywords. Finally, in the last week of February (Feb. 25- Mar. 1) YouTube related search comprised 15.69% of the top 50 keywords.
Collectively, in the past week, YouTube related search and mobile device related search, comprise 38.31% of the top 50 keywords.
Data from the past month not only implies that areas of interest among Chitika’s network’s of online consumers correlates to, or are shaped by, current online buzz, but also that interest in mobile web space and mobile web applications is increasing. Chitika | Pulse first looked into a growing interest in mobile web accessibility in January (Issue II), “CES 2008 –Most Popular Cellular Devices,” which accounted the rising popularity of mobile devices that offer web browsing capabilites (ie; Smart Phones).
About Chitika | Pulse
Chitika | Pulse is a weekly publication that highlights emerging trends in online advertising and merchandising in the blogosphere.
By offering a succinct analysis of online consumer behavior in Chitika’s network, Chitika | Pulse exclusively correlates trends to address a wide range of topics related to online branding, e-commerce, retail in the long tail, and direct merchandising within the blogosphere and social networks.
By Tessa Rudd, Strategic Partnerships Coordinator - Advertising Media Division
