YouTube has been undergoing many changes in the past couple of months, including a redesign that launched the new “professional content” pages on the site. The company has also rumored to have been scrubbing accounts, even deactivating dead YouTube accounts. Many of the most popular YouTubers have reported a decline in their viewership since these changes, which begs the question: Is YouTube on the outs?
Quick answer: Yes. Perhaps due to the attempted professionalism, perhaps due to other video hosting sites popping up, either way, YouTube video views have decreased every month in 2012:
| January : | 21.8 billion video views |
| February : | 18.5 billion video views |
| March : | 16.5 billion video views |
| April : | 15.6 billion video views |
Yikes. Even #saveYouTube hastags have been spreading on twitter, so that can’t be good. While YouTube is boasting that people are spending more time on the site, watching longer videos, the numbers don’t lie – people are going elsewhere for video watching.
So what does this mean for you? You, dear reading, who is trying to master animation techniques or weave cartoons in videos to create the best explanatory video. Well, it means you should take another look at where you post your video. While YouTube is trying to create a more professional feel, there are still those ridiculous animated videos mimicking How to Catch a Predator. So, think about other places to post your content, and oh heyyy we did a blog post on this to make it nice and easy for you. You’re welcome.
