Facebook’s Autoplay Video Has Led to a Surge in Online Traffic, Amazon Doubles its SVOD Traffic

Vincent Flood 25 November, 2014 

Facebook’s introduction of autoplay video saw average subscriber usage increase by as much as 60 percent on US mobile networks and over 200 percent on fixed networks in the past year, according to a new report by Sandvine, a provider of broadband network solutions for fixed and mobile operators. Facebook launched autoplay video in May of this year and since then the social network quickly moved into second place for unique video viewers in the US market, reaching approximately two thirds of the audience Google does (see ComScore rankings for September  below).

Comscore Video Rankings

When it comes to traffic, Netflix continues to dominate North American networks, accounting for 34.9 percent of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours, while Amazon Instant Video has established itself as the second largest paid streaming video service in North America. While still only accounting for 2.6% of downstream traffic, Amazon’s share has more than doubled in the past 18 months, which is food for thought considering their reported interest in launching an ad-funded video service.

In advance of plans to start offering a standalone streaming subscriptions in the US, HBOGO accounts for just 1% of downstream traffic in the region. However, Dave Cuputo, President and CEO at Sandvine said it’s one to watch. He said, “With both Netflix and Amazon Instant Video gaining bandwidth share in North America during 2014, it will be fascinating to see how a standalone HBOGO streaming option will impact networks when it launches in 2015. The dynamic streaming video market underscores how important it is that operators around the globe have the business intelligence and big data solutions in place to understand the ever-changing behavior of their subscribers.”

Sandvine Rankings

On a fixed network in Australasia, where Netflix isn’t even available yet, approximately 2.5 percent of subscribers are accessing the service and it makes up as much as 4 percent of peak downstream traffic. The success of SVOD services have also had a major impact on filesharing traffic, whic continues to decline globally in almost all regions except Asia-Pacific, where it still accounts for more than 33 percent of total traffic.

2014-11-25T16:21:38+01:00

About the Author:

Go to Top