Teens Turning to Online Video in Droves

New report from Think with Google finds that some teens are spending more time watching videos online than messaging.

Alan Breznick, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

April 10, 2017

1 Min Read
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Teenagers are flocking to online video in great numbers, with many preferring to watch videos even over using messaging apps or engaging in social networking.

This finding is among the most notable emerging from a new report published by Think with Google that focuses on 13-17-year-olds and their mobile behavior. The report, conducted in partnership with research company Ipsos, found that video was the number one activity among teens who said they spent more than three hours a day with one particular activity. Specifically, 71% of these respondents selected "watching videos online," as opposed to 52% who used messaging apps and 51% who selected social networking.

Such results could help explain why Facebook and other leading social networks are increasingly focusing on running videos and live streaming. If "heavy user" teens are now spending more time viewing video than doing anything else, more may be likely to follow.

The study also contrasts the mobile behavior patterns of teens and millennials."While millennials were mobile pioneers, teens are mobile natives," the authors note.

For more on this story, please turn to our sister site, Telco Transformation.

— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

About the Author

Alan Breznick

Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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