Live Streaming & Online Video Report for 2021

Live Streaming & Online Video Report for 2021

As user statistics and reports are continually evolving, please take into account the dates of each statistic. We know the growth of livestreaming is an accelerating phenomena.

For clarity, when we say live streaming, we mean the following:

• Video content streamed via platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo and Twitch.
• Entertainment content from subscription platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV etc
• Live webinars, webcasts and online meeting platforms, including Zoom, Crowdcast, Webex, Microsoft teams etc.
• Videos streamed live to social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn Live, Instagram, Twitter (via Periscope), TikTok

The Conclusions are right here, in case you don’t get to the bottom of this page.

Live-streaming is now very much the mainstream. It reaches into every part of our lives, for business, entertainment, education, and news. For rapidly rising numbers, it’s the most common way to socialise and meet new people.

Participants are not only consuming content, but due to ease of access, an accelerating number are producing content – for a multitude of reasons, including lifestyle, entertainment, and especially for business use.

As a communications medium, live streaming provides marketeers with the access, reach, immediacy, and engagement they need with existing and prospective customers.

For recruitment marketeers, talent acquisition professionals, and agency recruiters, live streaming enable micro-targeting of specific demographics, immediate engagement with potential hires, and feedback in the form of data on precisely how well their marketing efforts are delivering a return on the investment of time and resources.

COVID-19’s Catalyst Effect

1. Between January and August 2020, the number of live-streamed events hosted increased by 1468% (Uscreen, 2020)
2. At the beginning of lockdowns, 1 in 10 people in the United States and the United Kingdom began to broadcast live videos of their own. (GWI coronavirus Research March 2020)
3. Nearly a quarter of viewers report that they will continue to stream more “post-COVID-19.” (GWI Flagship Report 2020)
4. Viewers prioritize lifelikeness in live streams. They want virtual events to mirror in-person events. Over a third want high definition video, and don’t want ads. (GWI coronavirus Research March 2020)
5. Search engines saw a 300-500%increase in searches for live streaming platforms during the middle of March 2020. (Google Trends)
6. Live stream watch time has increased by 250%. (Think with Google, 2020)
7. Approximately 44% of Brazilians streamed video content on smart TVs and streaming services during the lockdown. (GlobalWebIndex)
8. There is a rising demand for live broadcast theatre performances. (GlobalWebIndex)
9. Streaming during business hours surged by 60% at the beginning of COVID-19 lockdowns in Spain. (Diario Jaén) 
10. The first quarter of 2020 saw a 40% increase in SVOD viewing in the United States as compared to months leading up to that. (Reelgood)
11. When lockdowns started in March 2020, 68% of Disney Plus viewers in the United States started streaming more. Viewership on Netflix and Hulu increased by 66%. (nScreenMedia, 2020)
12. The fitness industry experienced a major boom, with an increase of over 1300% in minutes live streamed, in the first six months of lockdown (March to August). (Uscreen, 2020)
13. Remote education (via live stream) experienced an increase of over 980% in minutes live streamed between the spring and fall semester of 2020.  (Uscreen, 2020)
14. Wellness content, specifically related to yoga and meditation, experienced an increase of 392% in minutes live streamed in the second and third quarter of 2020.  (Uscreen, 2020)
15. Once COVID-19 began to spread across the United States, 11,000 houses of worship invested in a live streaming platform. Over 4.7 million worshipers tuned into live-streamed services. (The Washington Post, 2020)
16. Church services rose in streaming minutes by 40% in the first six months of lockdown (March to August 2020). (Uscreen, 2020)
17. In 2020, over 75% of all Internet traffic was streaming video content. By 2022, it is expected to reach 82%. (Cisco, 2020)
18. The most common types of business-related videos are webinars (56%), product demos (52%), social media videos (51%), explainer videos (49%), and product videos (47%). (Vidyard, 2019)
19. If a business uses a video on its webpage, it is 53x more likely to appear on the first page of Google results since video enhances SEO. (Video Explainers)
20. 87% of video marketers agree that video marketing gives them good ROI. (Wyzowl, 2021)
21. After watching a video, 84% of consumers state that they have been convinced to purchase a product or service. (Wyzowl, 2021)

Platforms

YouTube

• Total Number of Monthly Active YouTube Users: 2 billion – 10/20/20
• Total Number of Daily Active YouTube Users: 30 million
• Average Mobile Viewing Session: 40 minutes – 10/20/20
• Number of Videos Watched Per Day: 1 billion + – 10/20/20
• Hours of Videos uploaded per minute: 500 – 10/20/20
• 70%of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices.
• 37% of all mobile internet traffic belongs to YouTube.
• By 2025, it’s predicted that 50% of viewers under 32 will not subscribe to the paid TV.
• 20% of users will leave a video if it hasn’t hooked them in the first 10 seconds.
• YouTube is technically the second largest search engine in the world.

Zoom

• Zoom has surpassed 300 million daily users globally, a 50 per cent increase over the 200 million users it had last month and significantly more than the 10 million members it had at the end of 2019
• Zoom went public in 2019 at $36 a share, was trading at $68 last January, and is currently selling in the $415 range.
• Founder and CEO Eric Yuan, still owns 22 percent of the shares.

Facebook

• The Facebook Live video view count climbed to 2 billion viewers last year.
• In 2017, 1 out of every 5 Facebook videos was a live broadcast.
• In 2018, the number of Facebook Live broadcasts reached 3.5 billion.
• The daily watch time for Facebook Live broadcasts quadrupled in a single year.
• Facebook Live videos produce 6 times as many interactions as traditional videos.
• Facebook Live videos get 10 times more comments than regular videos.
• Facebook Live’s search popularity increased by 330% in just one year.
• Facebook Live users watch FB Live videos 3 times longer than pre-uploaded videos.

LinkedIn Live

• LinkedIn Live streams increased by 437% in 2020
• That’s a year-over-year calculation for October 2020.
• LinkedIn Live launched in February 2019 but really took off during this year of finding alternate ways to connect. The number of LinkedIn Live streams increased 89% from March to June alone.

Twitter

• Video views on Twitter increased 62% from 2019 to 2020
• 72% year-over-year increase in watch time.

TikTok

• TikTok is available in over 150 countries, has over 1.1 billion users, and has been downloaded over 200 million times in the United States alone.
• The TikTok app has been downloaded over 2.6 billion times worldwide
• TikTok users love the app. They spend an average of 52 minutes per day in the platform
• 83% of TikTok users have posted a video.

Live Streaming Statistics

1. Live streaming is growing fast. One report, shows that “Live video grew by 93%, with an average viewing time of 26.4 minutes per session.” (Streaming Media, 2019)
2. Live video holds users’ attention 10-20x longer than pre-recorded, on-demand content. (Forrester, 2017)
3. Of all people who report that they watch live streams, 7 out of 10 of them tune in to a live stream daily. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2018)
4. Video streaming rose 72.4% between Q1 2018 and Q1 2019. (Streaming Media, 2019)
5. The online live streaming industry has grown 99% between April 2019 and April 2020. (Tech Jury, 2020)
6. The live streaming industry is expected to be valued at 184.27 billion USD by 2027. (Tech Jury, 2020)
7. 82% of internet use will be for streaming video by 2022. (Cisco, 2021)
8. 79% of mobile use will be for streaming video by 2022. (Cisco, 2021)
9. Access to exclusive coverage is the reason why 26% of viewers tune into live streams. (GWI Consumer Trends Report 2019)
   

How Do People Watch Live Streams?

10. By 2022, almost 25% of United States Households will cancel their cable subscriptions. (Adweek, 2019)
11. In 2020, 232 million people watched streaming or downloaded video across all devices in the U.S. (Statista, 2019)
12. 90% of people watch videos over the internet. (PWC)
13. In 2019, on mobile, people watch videos for an average of 16 minutes a day. (Statista, 2019)
14. In 2019, on a desktop, people watch videos for an average of 7 minutes a day. (Statista, 2019)

The Importance of Live Streaming Quality

15. The biggest quality issue for live video is now starting failure. Live streams fail to start 2.6% of the time. (Streaming Media, 2019)
16. Online videos with a start-up time exceeding even two seconds have significantly higher streaming video abandonment rates, with each incremental second propelling another 6% of viewers to jump ship. (Akamai)
17. About 66% of video streaming service providers have difficulty determining how much bandwidth they need for high-quality streaming. (Digital TV Europe, 2019)
18. The coming 5G cell networks will provide speeds roughly 100x faster than the best available 4G LTE networks. (Streaming Media, 2019)
19. 5G will cut latency by 10x. (Cisco, 2020)
    

Video Streaming Statistics for Business

20. In 2019, 55% of enterprises were using live video for their company or division-wide broadcasts. (Haivision, 2019)
21. In 2019 53% of enterprises streamed or broadcast live video in their organization at least once a week, with 29% using it daily. (Haivision, 2019)
22. In 2019 the top 3 challenges faced by enterprise live streamers include: live streaming to employees working remotely (41%), live streaming from remote locations or conference centers (39%), and managing bandwidth in their facilities (36%). (Haivision, 2019)
23. In 2019 nearly a quarter of marketers have reported that live streaming is the most effective tool for promoting trade shows. (The Social Effect, 2019)
24. Two-thirds of marketers that target consumers use live streaming for marketing. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020) 
25. Brands are forecast to invest more than $100 billion on video content by 2023. (Forrester, 2018)
26. Video marketers use video content to reduce the necessity of support calls. There are reports that support calls have been reduced by 43% thanks to videos. (Wyzowl, 2021)
27. In 2020, Facebook Live became an important part of marketing strategies where video content was already being used. This increase was about 32%. (Wyzowl, 2021)

Live Streaming Trends in Marketing

28. Nearly 3/4 of millennials report that videos are helpful when they are comparing products while online shopping. (TechJury, 2020)
29. In 2018, 60% of viewers conduct online searches while watching a live stream. (Neil Patel, 2018)
30. Even in 2017, 79% of marketers say live video facilitates a more authentic interaction with an audience. (Go-Globe, 2017)
31. 82% of viewers say they prefer seeing a live stream rather than a brand’s social posts. (Tech Jury, 2020)
32. 80% of people would rather watch a live video from a brand than read their blog. (Tech Jury, 2020)
33. Sporting events account for 86% of live-streamed content. (99 Firms, 2019)

Live Video Monetisation Statistics

34. The video streaming market is predicted to be worth $124.6 billion by 2025. (Techjury, 2020)
35. Companies that use video features grow revenue 49 percent faster than non-video users. (Wordstream, 2020)
36. By 2021, there are expected to be 383 million SVOD subscriptions worldwide. (Techjury, 2020)
37. Subscription-based video on demand revenue is predicted to grow by 10.7% each year to yield a market volume of $85.735 billion by 2025. (Statista)

Live Streaming Industry Trends and Statistics

38. Over a quarter of viewers stream from multiple social media channels. 26% use Facebook, 15% use Snapchat, 13% use Instagram, and 13% use Twitter. (GWI Social Video Report 2019)
39. About 1 in 5 people discover new products and brands through social media live streams. (GWI Social Media Trends Report 2020)
40. Around 29% of internet users accessed live stream function on their preferred social media platform in May 2020. (GWI Live Streaming 2020 Infographic)
41. Live streaming on LinkedIn Live has grown in popularity by 158% from the first to the third quarter of 2020. (LinkedIn, 2020)
42. Engagement on live videos on LinkedIn is exponentially higher than posts with pre-recorded video. Live videos average 7x more reactions and 24x more comments. (LinkedIn, 2020)
43. A mere 3% of marketers currently use the live streaming function on LinkedIn. (Social Media Examiner, 2020)
44. The use of Instagram’s “Live” feature grew by 70% in April 2020. (Business Insider, 2020)
45. About a quarter of TikTok users used the platform to tune into a live stream in June of 2020. (Digital Information World)

Unless linked to in each stat, much of the information show here has come from the following sources.

• https://www.dacast.com/
• https://www.cisco.com/
• Wyzowl
• Hootsuite
• https://www.forbes.com/
• https://www.comparitech.com/
• https://websitesetup.org/news/internet-facts-stats/
• https://www.statista.com/
• https://www.oberlo.co.uk/