If you've watched an online video lately, you're not alone. Approximately 71 percent of Internet users have used a video-sharing Web site like YouTube or Vimeo, up from 66 percent last year, according to a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
On any given day, about 28 percent of Web users are using video sites, up from 23 percent in May 2010.
There's no split between urban and rural Web users; everyone is just as likely to log on and watch a cat video or the latest NYC subway fight. Gender also doesn't play a role. African Americans and Hispanics, however, are slightly more likely than white Web users to use video-sharing sites.
Parents are also more likely than non-parents to be consuming online video (81 percent vs. 61 percent). Pew said that could be attributable to the fact that parents with minors at home are generally younger and video-sharing site use is more prevalent among younger users.
"The rise of broadband and better mobile networks and devices has meant that video has become an increasingly popular part of users’ online experiences," said Kathleen Moore, author of the report. "People use these sites for every imaginable reason—to laugh and learn, to watch the best and worst of popular culture and to check out news. And video-sharing sites are very social spaces as people vote on, comment on, and share these videos with others."
Pew didn't go into what video sites people were using; they only asked the 2,277 respondents if they watched a video-sharing site like YouTube or Vimeo. In stats released earlier this month, however, comScore said Google Sites, driven primarily by YouTube, pulled in 149.3 million unique viewers in June. That was followed by music site VEVO with 63 million viewers and Yahoo Sites at 52.7 million.
Hulu came in at number nine in terms of top online video properties with 26.7 million viewers, but it was number one for ad impressions. Americans watched 5.3 billion video ads in June with Hulu serving up 1 billion.
In May, YouTube said more than 48 hours of video are uploaded to its site every minute, a 37 percent increase from the previous six months. As a result, somebody has to be creating that content. Pew found that 34 percent of cell phone owners have shot video with their phones, 26 percent have watched video on their phone, and 22 percent have posted videos or photos online.