Chinese consumers will spend nearly two hours a day watching videos online in 2020, according to Zenith’s Online Video Forecasts report. China will lead the world in video consumption with the average person spending 105 minutes a day online, closely followed by Russia (102 minutes) and the UK (101 minutes). Online video has exploded in China with local players iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video competing heavily for audiences as advertising investment growing sharply. Globally, consumers will spend more than one hour (67 minutes a day) watching online video this year, up from 56 minutes in 2017. This figure is expected to increase by 9 minutes a day, on average, each year until 2020. The figures reveal the rapid rise in online video consumption, which includes video sharing sites, subscription and broadcaster-owned platforms, as well as social media sites, led by market leaders such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime and Hulu along with iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video. Online video remains the fastest growing media consumption online and accounts for almost of all of the growth in total internet use. In line with the consumption growth, advertising expenditure is also rising sharply, online video ad spend grew 20% in 2017, to reach $27bn, according to Zenith estimates. Ad spend growth is forecast to reach 19% in 2018 followed by an average of 17% annual growth each year until 2020 when it will reach $43bn and account for 30% of display ad spend – up from 27% in 2017. As online video viewing increasingly steals audiences from traditional TV viewing, the ad market on average is still just 14% of the size of the TV market. However, online video ad spend is expected to be nearly one-quarter (23%) of the size of television ad spend by 2020. Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting and director of global intelligence at Zenith, said, “Online video is driving growth in global media consumption, as smartphones with high-speed data connections make high-quality video available to people on the move, and smart TV sets give viewers unparalleled choice in the living room. “The rapid rise in video viewing makes online video the world fastest-growing advertising format, creating new strategic and creative opportunities. Brands that do not currently have a strategy for online video need to think about getting one,” said Barnard. Zenith’s annual Online Video Forecasts report covers 59 key markets and combines historical data and forecasts of online video consumption and advertising. // Featured in this article
Online video consumption by Chinese viewers could hit nearly two hours per day by 2020, according to analysts Zenith Media. The firm's latest forecast predicts that China will lead the world with an average of 105 minutes a day of viewing per person, ahead of the 102 minutes expected in Russia and the 101 minutes expected in the UK. The average worldwide figure for 2018 is projected at 67 minutes per day, up from nine minutes last year, and is expected to grow by 56 minutes per day on average each year until 2020.