Perfect Internet marriage: the French and online video

Written on June 10, 2008 – 3:42 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

ComScore recently released data from their online video measurement service, indicating that 23.2 million French Internet users viewed 2.1 billion videos online in January 2008. That number of 23.2 million viewers makes up for 79.5 percent of the total French Internet audience.

So almost 80 percent of the French Internet users watched on average 90 videos in one month. The average video had a duration of four minutes. Please let me get this straight, January is a dark and cold month, Christmas is over and spring is far away, but… 90 videos?! Does French television programs suck that bad?

Although Google has the largest share in the French online video market (28.8 percent), French viewers watched a total of 28 million hours of online video on Dailymotion.com, more than any other site. So we’ve got a classic chicken and the egg story here. What came first? Are the French watching billion of videos online because of the successful video site Dailymotion? Or is Paris-based Dailymotion such a success because French people watch billions of videos?

I hope you like that post!

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Do you have a start-up that we should write about? Contact us! Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!

comscore, dailymotion, france, online video, study, Television, youtube

About the author: Ernst-Jan is a blogger and journalist, who previously worked in New York to cover news at the United Nations. Next to writing, he's also a singer in the band Christina Five.

Post that could be related to this post:

Will Europe follow Chinese trend of substituting TV for YouTube?

YouTube has become one of Holland's top 3 most visited sites, a study by Dutch research agency Multiscope shows. Two thirds of Dutch Internet users check the video site on at least a monthly basis,...

Invites for the social media centre of the future, Boxee

For a lot of young European people, online video sites are a substitute for television. 79.5 of the total French Internet audience watched on average 90 videos in January 2008. And YouTube has become one...

Good news if you have a hard time with English, YouTube offers subtitles

English has always been the language to go when reaching out to as many Western Internet users as possible. Well, it's even better now since YouTube offers a subtitle feature. So here's an example. What...

6 comments/trackbacks to “Perfect Internet marriage: the French and online video”

Aug 25, 2008: Will Europe follow Chinese trend of subsituting TV for YouTube?
[...] arises whether we Europeans will face a similar scenario in the near future. Comscore recently released data from their online video measurement service, indicating that 23.2 million French Internet users [...]
Sep 25, 2008: Invites for the social media centre of the future, Boxee
[...] lot of young European people, online video sites are a substitute for television. 79.5 of the total French Internet audience watched on average 90 videos in January 2008. And YouTube has become one of Holland’s top 3 most [...]

By Nicolas on Jun 10, 2008

I think one of the key reason video is so successfull in FR is that DSL / broadband connection is really cheap. With €30 euros a month, you can get near 20M connection. So TV over IP, VOD is really great for this price.

[Reply]
By Bob Boynton on Jun 10, 2008

Korea, France: it is nice to know what is going on outside the US. Most of the tech blogs I read stick to the US with an occasional reference elsewhere — such as half of YouTube downloads go outside the US. Where do they go? There is no mention. Global means global.

[Reply]
By chris Jangelov on Jun 11, 2008

In Sweden DSL / broadband connection is appr €25 a month, sometimes even cheaper. It would be interesting to know the time spent on video sites for Sweden.

[Reply]
By hammy1 on Jun 11, 2008

Hi Bob,

what tech sites do you like, reviews etc? I also like to know what is going on around the world other than UK and US and use a site called viewmy.tv to watch live free TV from loads of countries across the world. This site has everything, but espcially great news channels and entertianment channels. its free so check it out, someone notifed me about it on tech site T3 and I use it all the time now!

[Reply]