Online Video Engagement Skyrockets in Germany. (Image: Maurits Knook, via Flickr / CC)

ComScore released data yesterday that implies that within March 2012 alone, 46.9 million German Internet users accessed video content online, which is 2.3 percent higher than last year. What’s more, the average time spent by viewers watching videos on the Internet has also increased by 33.7 percent over the year.

Unsurprisingly, Google Sites is still the number one video host in the German online video market, which is mostly due to YouTube. 99.7 percent of the 35.4 million visitors have accessed videos hosted by Google Sites through YouTube.com. Next in line is ProSiebenSat1, which includes MyVideo and Maxdome, having 14.0 million visitors to garner second rank in the Top 10 German Online Video Sites. Having 9.9 million distinct viewers makes United-Internet Sites the third largest video site for Internet users in Germany.

Last year, FutureTV and SnackTV Video Network entered the top 10 as rookies and are now in the sixth and seventh place following Facebook and RTL Group Sites. VEVO, which gained tract with its collaboration with Universal Music, comes in at eighth place with 5.1 million distinct users accessing the site in March. Completing the top ten were Dailymotion.com and Microsoft Sites, having 4.5 million and 4.2 million unique viewers, respectively.

In YouTube, the most popular channels are those related to the games industry. Bigpoint @ YouTube gained the most traction with 5.6 million viewers taking it up to first place. Machinima comes second with 4.2 million viewers, followed by Media Power Networks with 3.2 million. Bigpoint’s number of viewers on YouTube has increased by almost 86 percent since October 2011.

The senior account manager of comScore at Germany, Peter Bern Schneider said, “YouTube is being used as a playground for developers of new video formats and the prospect to reach 35 million people on a single platform, certainly a great attraction, especially for start-ups. In America and England, however, we see another trend – known brands use YouTube channel to expand their reach and partly also to reach new (younger) audiences. It seems that the potential of YouTube channels in German-speaking countries are not fully utilized, but with the new metrics that are available now, can change that quickly.”

During the three-month period that ended in March 2012, 3.2 million Germans retrieved or accessed videos online through their phones, showing an increase of up to 70 percent in comparison to last year’s results of the same quarter. Germans who used their phones extensively for online video access where those who were between 45 to 54 years old – which had the highest growth at 117.2 percent change – barely surpassing the 13 to 17-year-old age group – which had 100.8 percent change. Almost two-thirds of the total video accesses by the use of a smartphone were conducted by those aged 35 years old and below.

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

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