Google announced on an earnings report Friday that almost of the YouTube traffic comes from mobile devices.
These days, a lot of people get really hooked on their smartphones and tablets, and they do almost everything on their gadgets: accept and make calls, video interviews, send SMS, e-mail, report, and socialize using Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and YouTube.
The Internet company reported that 40 percent of the video-sharing website came directly from its mobile users. That is 15 percent up from 2012 and 34 percent up from the six percent noted in 2011.
Google is not the only one quickly shifting its more than one billion users to mobile. Facebook is also having a similar fate, according to a TechCrunch report.
Facebook reported that during the second quarter of 2013, 819 million or 73 percent of their users are mobile users, up by 17 percent compared to the numbers of the same period in 2012. However, the social networking site noted that these users have at least surfed through their mobile phones once and may have also surfed through their desktops.
Google former director of product management Hunter Walk has tweeted Friday, “Who is the YouTube of mobile & tablets? YOUTUBE! We made early bet & now accts for 40% of traffic. Great job @dobry2000 & team,” it seems YouTube has been putting much effort and funds for a great web and mobile experience, not just for Android, but for iOS as well since it took control of the app back again from Apple.
He added that in 2007, even before much demand for mobile or revenue arose, YouTube has already created a mobile team. The team is responsible for transcoding all videos so they can be viewed properly on mobiles. They also made a deal with Apple to have YouTube pre-installed on the iPhone.
With this growing YouTube trend, Google’s mobile team will also need to think of ways on how to close a deal with Microsoft and create a YouTube app for Windows Phone so that users won’t be directed to the m.youtube.com mobile site.