Vevo Sees Big Mobile Uptick for Online Music Video Streaming

When it comes to mobile video usage, viewing of TV shows and movies may be on the rise, but the majority of usage is still video-snacking. Case in point: music video company Vevo, which streamed 1.3 billion songs from mobile devices in the second quarter of 2012.

The most popular selection for the quarter on the service? Carly Rae Jepsen’s ubiquitous earworm, “Call Me Maybe,” which boasted 125 million views during the three-month period.

The company said that mobile traffic was up 463 percent year-over-year, and that mobile traffic nearly doubled between the first and second quarter of this year. Mobile users are also now watching an average of 15 videos per month.

Vevo started out as an online video provider under the auspices of YouTube, created in partnership with Universal Music Group (News - Alert), Sony Music Entertainment and the Abu Dhabi Media Company. But it has systematically gone after the mobile video market, as smartphones and tablets have gotten more video-friendly and as networks have grown to support the high-bandwidth application with some modicum of end-user quality.

The company said that it has seen a total of 18 million downloads to date of its smartphone and tablet apps, which support iPhone, iPad, Android (News - Alert), Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry Playbook. Vevo is also available through YouTube’s Android app and most mobile Web browsers.

Significantly, Vevo grew its monthly mobile active users by 33 percent from the previous quarter, to total 5 million people. Vevo recorded more than 450 million mobile video streams in June alone.

Overall, taking into account PC- and Mac-based viewing as well, the service averaged 429 million monthly viewers during the second quarter of 2012, which is an increase of five percent from the same time last year. They’re also watching more: Monthly video usage averaged 3.2 billion streams during Q2, up 9.6 percent year-over-year.

Broken down, customers consume 103 million music videos each day. Between July 2011 and July 2012, 40 billion music videos were watched globally.

Canada has one of the highest pay TV penetrations in the world, estimated to reach 92 per cent at year-end 2012, but like the US, IHS (News - Alert) Screen Digest expects that pay TV penetration will be on a relentless yet shallow decline through 2016 as many newly formed households are less likely to take a traditional pay TV subscription because of high price points and an emerging OTT business.

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