Mobile and desktop video consumption are running virtually neck-and-neck, with 89% of consumers saying they watch video on smartphones and other mobile devices, compared to 70% on desktops, AOL found in a fresh study that tracked usage trends across seven global regions.
Additionally, 57% of consumers watch videos on a mobile phone every day, compared to 58% on desktops and laptops.
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Those findings indicate that the market is “very close to the tipping point where mobile will soon be the number one video screen,” AOL said.
But the shift toward mobile viewing is also tracking with consumption of short-form video, with 42% of those surveyed saying their watch videos that are 5 minutes or less in length each day.
That group tails off as the length of videos get longer – 31% of consumers said they watch video that is 20 minutes or longer -- AOL found in the study, which surveyed about 1,600 consumers in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Japan, Australia and parts of Southeast Asia.
The study also focused on mobile viewing trends for virtual reality, 360-degree video and live streaming. Among U.S. consumers, 74% said they watch live video content on their smartphones, while 28% had experienced VR, and almost half tried out 360-degree video. From a broader view, Southeast Asia was home to the highest concentration of consumers (76%) who said they watch live video on their smartphones.
Mobile video trends are also affecting advertising budgets, per a part of the study that included a sample size of buyers and sellers in the digital video ad sector. Some 47% of advertisers expected to boost mobile ad spend by at least 25% this year, and 57% of publishers anticipated to boost spending in that category by at least 25% in 2017.
In-app video, granular audience targeting, and the ability to buy mobile on a programmatic basis were viewed as the most popular mobile ad opportunities for 2017.
