According to new figures from eMarketer, 78.4 per cent of digital video viewers will use their mobile phones to watch streamed content in 2018.
It predicts nearly a quarter of the world’s population will watch at least one video over a mobile phone this year and 2.38 billion people will watch streamed or downloaded video content via any device this year.
Overall, eMarketer predicts that 66.8 per cent of digital video viewers, or 1.58 billion people, will view a video on YouTube during 2018.
“Video’s proliferation on social networks and the growth of over-the-top streaming platforms are major drivers of digital video viewing worldwide,” said Oscar Orozco, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer.
“However, an understated driver of video viewing is the use of chat apps. We forecast that close to 55 per cent of internet users will be active on chat apps by the end of 2018. Watching and sharing digital videos is a major feature on chat apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and WeChat, and for many internet users, it’s their first experience with digital video. We expect this will continue to be a significant driver of mobile video consumption.”
