YouTube Trounces other Social Media and Sometimes Even TV
Monday, January 5th, 2009
I’m confused by this TechCrunch end of year story entitled Top Social Media Sites of 2008. YouTube is nowhere to be found in the top 20..? Does this mean that YouTube no longer counts as a social media site or is it just that getting 5.4 billion views puts it in a rank all of its own? This chart from May 2008 puts YouTube at the pole position.
Regardless of rank YouTube had a great year; or rather companies who understood its power learned how to use it well. Salon.com points out in The Year of Viral Video that even political junkies jumped in, as can be seen in this example of a campaign message for Obama, a brilliant retelling of the “Wassup?” Budweiser ad.
As anyone who hasn’t been living under rock knows, SNL, Tina Fey and Hulu had a lot of fun at Gov Sarah Palin’s expense. Hulu, the joint NBC-News Corp. service, which launched publicly back in March, now ranks sixth among Web video sites. Between Hulu and NBC.com, more people watched “SNL’s” Sarah Palin sketches online than on TV. Their Clinton-Palin opener, which aired on Sept. 13, has been viewed more than 8 million times on the “SNL” Web site.
Salon also pointed out that “The smaller Web video site, Vimeo, continued to expand its catalog of beautifully produced videos available in HD and struck gold with Capucine, an adorable little French girl. The pint-size Amélie enthralled us with her storytelling, her imagination — and her accent. She even befriended a boy online; it was like e-Harmony for kindergartners.”
Capucine meets Alex from Capucha on Vimeo.
