While many of us think of YouTube and Google as very different platforms with very different offerings, the reality is that today the two are more similar than you might think.

In an era when video is the preferred medium for consuming information, internet users are increasingly turning to YouTube with their ‘how to’, ‘what to’ and ‘best of’ questions.

In fact, with product reviews, how-to tutorials and vlogs among the hottest content on YouTube (ranking after music and gaming) we’re more likely than ever before to open our internet browsers and go straight to YouTube than Google when we have a question.

I’d also like to mention that my headline question of “Is YouTube the next Google?” is of course completely nonsensical, as Google owns YouTube, but for the sake of this article, Google represents the most used search engine in the world, and this could be exactly where YouTube is heading.

So just how big is YouTube?

• 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• 1.9 billion logged-in monthly users
• 4,950,000,000 videos are viewed on YouTube every day

When you look at the statistics, today YouTube is the second most visited site on the web (Alexa ranking), right after Google. But it’s not just that; overall interactions, such as likes, comments and chats, have increased by more than 60% year on year, and live streams increased by 10 times over the last three years.

Behaviours are changing too. The time people spend watching YouTube on their television screen has doubled in a year and studies show that six out of ten people prefer online video platforms like YouTube to live television. It’s even been predicted that by 2025, half of viewers under 32 years of age will not subscribe to a pay-TV service.

What does this mean for marketers?

Unfortunately a lot of digital marketers still treat YouTube as a video hosting and/or social platform, failing to tap into the huge potential.

Once you start to view YouTube as a search engine of Google proportions, the mission becomes clear: every business is now advised to implement a YouTube strategy into their digital marketing activities.

In my next blog we’ll look at how to make your video searchable and optimized to achieve the best results, so stay tuned!

To learn more about how Red Marlin can boost your digital marketing activities contact us on 01926 832395 or email hello@redmarlin.co.uk.