Story by
Ernst-Jan Pfauth
Ernst-Jan Pfauth is the former Editor in Chief of Internet at NRC Handelsblad, as well as an acclaimed technology author and columnist. He a Ernst-Jan Pfauth is the former Editor in Chief of Internet at NRC Handelsblad, as well as an acclaimed technology author and columnist. He also served as The Next Web’s blog’s first blogger and Editor in Chief, back in 2008. At De Correspondent, Ernst-Jan serves as publisher, fostering the expansion of the platform.
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?