YouTube draws in 100 million viewers a month

US viewers consume almost 15 billion videos a month

YouTube hit a major milestone in January, surpassing the 100 million viewer mark in the US alone, and offering a clear indication of the huge growth in demand for online video.

The latest figures from research firm comScore suggest that US viewers consume almost 15 billion videos a month across a wide range of media sites, but it is YouTube that grabs the lion's share.

ComScore said that the number of online video viewers rose by four per cent in January compared to the previous month, and that YouTube accounted for 91 per cent of this growth. Just under one billion US citizens watched 6.3 billion videos on the site, or roughly 63 videos per viewer.

Google, which bought YouTube in 2006 for £883m, ranks as the most popular video provider in the US. Around 6.4 billion of its videos were viewed in January, reflecting 43 per cent of the online video market.

However, although the search giant runs Google Video, YouTube.com accounts for 99 per cent of its traffic. Google was followed by Fox Interactive Media with 552 million videos, or 3.7 per cent, and Yahoo Video with 374 million videos, or 2.5 per cent.

The average viewer spent almost six hours watching online videos in January, up 15 per cent on the previous month.