We teamed up the NewMediaRockstars to craft an infographic showcasing the Top 10 Countries outside the US in terms of viewership. Here’s what we found:
Top 10 Countries in Viewership Outside USA
Gangnam Style Becomes World’s Most Popular Video With 1 Billion Views in Sight
Gangnam Style today became the most popular YouTube video in history, outpacing Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby,’ which has more than 804 million views. Released on July 15, 2012, the single by Korean singer PSY has smashed all previous records for a music video or any piece of digital content.
Gangnam Style had its best day ever on Oct. 28, clocking 24,463,506 views, ChannelMeter’s proprietary data show. Since it was released the video has average 6.1 million daily views, our data show. Gangnam Style has already been viewed more than 190 million times since Nov. 1.
Our graph below shows the performance of Gangam Style and Baby since the end of October 2012. Growth for Baby is flat, while Gangnam Style continues to surge.
ChannelMeter predicts Gangnam Style will be the first video in history to reach 1 Billion views on Dec. 21, 2012, according to our analysis. ChannelMeter previously predicted Gangnam Style would become the most popular video in history on Nov. 22, reaching 1 billion views on or before Dec. 12, 2012.
Obama Supporters Are Watching Romney Videos. Is Anyone Else?
Supporters of President Barack Obama are the likely driving force of rival Mitt Romney’s YouTube channel, an analysis of ChannelMeter’s proprietary YouTube data show. If next week’s presidential election were held on YouTube, President Barack Obama would be the hands-down winner, but it’s possible that the rivals are even further apart than YouTube statistics indicate.
Obama is winning on YouTube because his campaign team understands the medium, and they are using online video powerfully to connect with voters. For Romney and his team, YouTube seems to be an afterthought.
How this translates on election day is anyone’s guess, but let’s look at the numbers.
Methodology
For the purposes of our study we analyzed data* for “new videos” uploaded by either candidate since the first day of each party’s nominating convention, Aug. 27 for the Republicans, and Sept. 3 for the Democrats. We looked at a few key measures of video performance
- Total video uploads
- Cumulative video views
- Aggregate Likes and Dislikes
- Likes vs. Dislikes as a Ratio
President Obama’s team uploaded nearly 500 new videos in the 59 days since the DNC, and in the last 66 days Mitt Romney has uploaded 100.
Obama’s post-convention videos have reached over 4x as many viewers; 39,759,332 versus 9,344,922. Governor Romney’s videos were watched more frequently. While President Obama averaged 85,873 views per upload, Romney received 88,159 views per video.
There is a night and day difference between the campaigns’ most popular videos. Obama’s attack ad, “Big Bird” has been watched 3.5 million times since being posted on Oct. 9. On Sept. 27, the Romney campaign upload its most popular ad, “Too Many Americans,” which has 920,000 views, our data show.
Beyond view counts, the ratio of likes versus dislikes is the most important metric for gauging the impact of a candidates’s YouTube strategy. YouTube only records one like or dislike per viewer, per video.
Obama received 280,650 aggregate likes versus 54,467 dislikes, to Romney’s 58,254 likes, and 32,881 dislikes. For every 5.2 likes Obama received, he received 1 dislike, compared to 1.8 likes for every dislike for Romney. Romney received 38 percent of all dislikes, in spite of uploading only 20 percent of all new videos, and receiving 19 percent of new video views.
Conclusion
It’s a fairly safe assumption that the Romney Campaign has no YouTube strategy, and is simply repurposing its television ads online. Obama, on the other hand, understands that YouTube is a powerful tool that can be used to cost-effectively reach his desired audience. The discrepancy in the number of uploads between the two candidates shows that Obama is creating content specifically for YouTube to target key constituencies such as young, female voters, those living in early voting states, and residents of key swing states such as Florida, Nevada and Colorado.
Obama’s YouTube team knows a thing or two about creating buzz, releasing a steady stream of star-powered spots featuring A-Listers such as Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, Mad Men Star John Hamm, and Rashida Jones and Alisha Keys. No high-profile celebrities appear in videos uploaded to Mitt Romney’s official YouTube channel.
Based on our analysis, one could plausibly assume that Obama and Romney are sharing the same YouTube audience–namely Obama supporters. How else does one explain the discrepancy between the average number of likes and dislikes for both candidates? It’s impossible to know for sure, but a strong case could be made that riled-up Obama supporters are disproportionately responsible for Romney’s YouTube. With almost one dislike for every two video likes, one could infer that a significant portion of those tuning in to watch Romney videos are doing so to express their displeasure.
The Romney team may also know that its key demographic does not see YouTube as a source of valuable political information, otherwise they may have devoted resources. But in a nail-biter of an election, if Obama’s YouTube strategy delivers young voters to the polls, social media could be the key factor in deciding the next president of the United States.
*This post is based on ChannelMeter data collected Nov. 1, 2012.
Gangnam Style Will Be Most Popular YouTube Video By Thanksgiving, Reach 1 BIllion Views Before Christmas
Viral video sensation ‘Gangnam Style‘ will become the most-watched YouTube video in history on or before Nov. 21, when it passes Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby,’ according to ChannelMeter’s proprietaryYouTube data. Korean singer PSY is on track to hit 1 billion video views on or before Dec. 12, 2012, our projections show. The 1 billion views figure assumes linear growth remains constant.
Gangnam Style was released on July 15, 2012, and is on target to be the Number 2 most popular YouTube video of all time within the next five days. The J.Lo and Pitbull hit ‘On The Floor,’ is currently Number 2, with 611 million views.
Our chart below shows that cumulative growth for both videos from Justin Bieber and J.Lo have been flat for some time. Gangnam Style continues to surge. ChannelMeter’s data show the video still gaining an astounding 17 million new views per day, a 70 percent increase from one week ago.
Gangnam Style quickly became the most viral video in history. It crossed the 220 million view threshold in just six weeks, swatting Carly Rae Jepsen’s song, ‘Call Me Maybe,’ from the top spot. ‘Call Me Maybe’ was published to YouTube on Mar. 1, 2012, and currently has 307 million views.
PSY’s subversive smash hit about a posh neighborhood in Seoul caps a year of viral video milestones, including the release of the The documentary ‘KONY 2012,’ which has 100 million views in its first six days, according to The Guardian.
If Declining Views Are Why Ray William Johnson and Maker Studios Split, Here’s Why
When YouTube stars flame out it happens where everyone can see. And it’s possible that is we’ve just witnessed in wake of the very public divorce between YouTube sensation Ray William Johnson and Maker Studios. So was it a fight for creative control, or cold economic rationale?
Maker Studios boasts that its network of more than 1,000 publishers generate 1 billion video views monthly. With 6 million subscribers and more than 2 billion video views, Ray William Johnson was a vital contributor to Maker Studios’ rising fortunes. However Ray William Johnson’s show “=3,” has been sinking fast.
According to ChannelMeter’s proprietary YouTube data, Ray has seen his popularity tumble, gaining 36 percent fewer new views in September than in July — a decrease of 23 million views per month. While Ray continues to grow his subscriber base, our data show he’s off his pace considerably: he added a respectable 100,215 subscribers last month, but growth in subscribers is down by 22 percent compared to his historical average.
By way of comparison, the top 100 YouTubers as a group increased video views 2.02 percent* during the same three-month period. Ray William Johnson is still the most popular publisher on YouTube–bigger than Justin Bieber and Rihanna combined–but he is underperforming his peers. The Top 100 YouTubers grew subscribers 13.27 percent** during the same quarter Johnson’s growth cooled.
So did Maker Studios kill the goose that laid the golden egg, or are they just cutting their losses?
We reached out to Maker Studios for clarification. They declined to comment, referring us instead to their official statement:
With the recent decline in viewership on =3 it made sense for him to go back to producing the show himself. Maker providing a full production staff of 12 people including a team of writers no longer was a viable option for =3.
Johnson claims viewership was not an issue.
“Maker suddenly insisted on owning part of =3 IP,” Johnson said in a public Twitter exchange with New Media Rockstars founder Benny Luo. “When I told them no, they stopped production on the YFM album, so I left.”
Since joining forces with Maker Studios the format of the “=3” show has changed considerably. No longer is the program filmed in Ray’s bedroom, and the show features a steady stream of celebrity guest hosts. Some are funny, some are not. Rza of the Wu Tang Clan hosted an episode published in late September, and used the end of his appearance to plug his upcoming movie ‘The Man with the Iron Fists.” While mainstream comedians and actors may be using “=3” to broaden their reach, it seems the “=3” viewership is not impressed. This may explain why they’re leaving in droves.
While Ray William Johnson will likely remain the most popular YouTuber for some time, he may be looking forward to a long, downward career arc.
*Video views for the top 100 YouTube publishers increased 12.46 percent if you include PSY GANGNAM STYLE
**Subscriber growth for the top 100 YouTube channels increased 13.27 percent if you include OFFICIAL PSY
Building America’s Cup Fan Base Through YouTube
Image from: americascup-news.com
In the words of the great Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are a-Changin’”. In today’s digital age, is it possible to create a whole new fan base using social media? Oracle exec, Larry Ellison certainly thinks so as evidenced by his $100 million-plus investment in America’s Cup.
With its complex strategies and unfamiliar rules and players, America’s Cup sailing has struggled to gain the mainstream media coverage that it needs for growth. Enter social media and YouTube.
America’s Cup has made a strong presence online this year. They are currently climbing up in popularity and boast over 76,000 Facebook likes and over 32,000 YouTube subscribers, which is much more than some of the major team sponsors. Moreover, America’s Cup is putting a huge effort into their online presence and their YouTube page is particularly impressive.
This last event in San Francisco acted as a big boost for the sport with national network coverage on NBC and multiple live YouTube streams. America’s Cup gained over 1,000 subscribers in less than one week. Another clear indicator of the sport’s growth is that there was an increase in YouTube views also seen last year when the AC world series was in San Diego.
Examining the video comments also hints at the fact that people are interested in the sport. For videos uploaded after the San Diego race, the average number of comments is over twice as much as the first three races. People love seeing an exciting sporting event, when things are covered live on YouTube, and when the commentators are able to explain what is happening to novices.
Of those videos returned when searching on YouTube for America’s Cup, only 81 were uploaded in August. Yet, these videos are averaging over 80% of the views compared to races after last year’s event in San Diego.
Highlight videos were the ones generating far more views than others. Check out one of the more popular videos.
The sport is obviously growing in popularity; the question now becomes “can they sustain the growth?” We think so. YouTube trends show that when the America’s Cup World Series and their live HD helicopter coverage are back in San Francisco in October, the fan base will likely be even larger than it was this weekend.
For more details about the America’s Cup, keep an eye on http://channelmeter.com/channels/americascup.
How to: Create a Group
There are many reasons you may want to create a group on ChannelMeter. If you have multiple channels or want to segregate channels, the Groups function is a perfect way to organize your statistics.
Follow these easy steps to create a group.
Step 1: After you have signed in: click your name and find the Groups page.
Step 2: Click the “Add” button under the Group header and pick a name for your group.
Step 3: Find your new group at the bottom of the Groups page and click “Edit”.
Step 4: Click “Add to Group” if you are already tracking the channel or enter the username next to “Add Channel”.
Step 5: Click “Save” once you are done adding channel names and find your group at the bottom of the Groups page again.
Step 6: Click the “Details” button and play around with all the cool widgets we have. Compare each of the channels in a group, treat them as a collective, or even change the date range. This is an easy way to make sure your channels are performing like their competitors.
