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5 Facts Calculated from comScore’s October Online Video Rankings

Some friends and I took a stab at a YouTube channel.  Check out Red Flying Horse if you haven’t yet.  Ever since, I have paid more attention to online video metrics.  Online video is growing tremendously.  Every now and then I will check out comScore’s Online Video Rankings.  In particular I think the Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties Ranked by Unique Video Viewers is really interesting.  This is basically the biggest online sites based on the number of viewers.  If you want the highlights, I came up with the top 5 facts.

  • 188.98 MM Americans watched over 22 hours of online video
  • 87% of those watched an average of 8 and a half hours of video on YouTube
  • The top 10 Partner Channels represent 13% of the videos viewed
  • VEVO has 49.6 MM viewers directly and 47.8 MM indirectly through YouTube
  • Large paid video services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO are not represented because they don’t have enough unique viewers

The first bullet is basically saying the AVERAGE America is watching just under an hour of online video a day.  Which means for many Americans, all the video they are watching is happening online.  Online video is way more than short online videos on YouTube.  You can also see that basically everyone that watches online video watches video on YouTube.  About 40% of online time is spent watching YouTube videos.  I was also surprised how much share the top 10 Partner Channels had.  I think that says that people like well produced content.  I think it is interesting that VEVO has such a strong direct channel but still maintains the YouTube channel.  I assume they make considerably more on the direct model.  I assume they believe if they stop the YouTube content, they will lose those views all together.  So Netflix, Hulu, and HBO must have less than 30 MM online viewers.  I wonder what the number is?

Let me know if you have any thoughts in the comments.

My dream project bike

One year I lost 30 lbs in 12 weeks.  A handful of people at work said I couldn’t do it.  They started teasing me that there was no way I could lose that much weight.  So finally I said, “look.  You can laugh all you want.  That’s fine.  I don’t blame you.  30 lbs is a lot to lose and I probably won’t make it.  But if you want to give me shit, you have to bet me I can’t do it.”  Before I knew it I had over a thousand dollars in bets.  Shit with a capitol S.  Now I absolutely couldn’t lose.  And I didn’t.  With the money I went out and bought a 2007 Triumph Bonneville “Bonnie Black”.  It looked like the old cafe racers.  Think The WIld One with Marlon Brando.  In the 50s, Triumph was the bike to get.  Check out An Officer and a Gentleman with Richard Gere.  Anyway.  I love the cafe racer look.  And I didn’t really see anyone else with bikes like it.  After I sold it, some of my friends got similar bikes.  That killed it for me.  The allure was the fact that I had something no one else had yet.  It was really different.

I went to a custom bike show and now I know what my next dream project is.  I want to build the bike from scratch myself.  It isn’t as crazy as it sounds.  There are a ton of shops that will assist you in building your dream bike.  You get the parts.  They charge you a consulting fee which includes use of their tools.  The bike in the slide show is pretty much what I want.  There are a ton of project bikes like this on Bike Exif.  I really like the Honda CB’s that have been stripped down to the essentials.  That is basically what a “bobber” is.  I want a bobber.  Big black Coker tires, the lowered rear shocks, the straight pipes, the lowered handlebars, the low profile seat.  You have to look twice to even find the battery.  This thing can barely weigh anything.  The only thing I would change is I would take the “Honda” off the tank so people would have no clue what it is.  Well, a handful would know.

 

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How Hollywood could make more money

Last night I saw Cloud Atlas.  It was hard to do because I have heard the book is so good.  But I have enjoyed Game of Thrones after watching the show on HBO, so I thought why not?  The movie was OK but it occurred to me that it could have been better if it was longer.  Which is an odd thing to say.  The movie is already pushing 3 hours, which is suicide in the movie world.  But think on this: how stupid would it have been for someone to try to make a 2 or three hour movie of Game of Thrones?  What a loss!  It would have been horrible.  The story is too rich to squeeze into such a short span of time.  And then it hit me.  Have we out lived the 2 hour movie?

Why do movies have to be 100 to 200 minutes long?  Look at HBO and how successful they have been with the serial.  Maybe they are on to something.  I think people want to be invested into an epic, long stretching story.  Think about it.  Star Wars.  X Men.  Batman.  You have episode after episode.  Think of all the hours you have invested into these universes.  The deeper and richer, the better.  I am not saying do away with the one hitter.  I’m just saying maybe a blockbuster maybe should mean something with multiple volumes made all at once.  Think Kill Bill.  Maybe Tarintino was on to something.

Let me leave you with a great story.  A huge company, I forget which one, was trying to think of any way to increase revenue.  They promised an executive position to any employee that could come up with a way to increase revenue.  It was a janitor that hand the golden ticket.  He suggested that they increase the hole in the toothpaste tube.  Simple.  People would just squeeze out more toothpaste.  It worked, too.  And he went from cleaning toilets to being an executive.  Hollywood needs to make the hole bigger.  Why sell one movie ticket when you can sell three or four?  Riddle me that!

Something better than online dating

In a sermon, our pastor criticized online dating.  But our church doesn’t offer anything to help single people meet.  I don’t know what they expect people to do.  I am not about to start hitting on girls during service after meeting them once.  Who wants their worship service to turn into a hookup scene?  But if not if not that then what?  I just don’t think our church has really thought it through.  I love their equipping classes and think they could really do something interesting with those.  What if they had equipping classes for singles?  Maybe a 12 week class on a book of the bible.  12 people to the class, 6 girls and 6 guys.  Each week one guy is paired up with a girl and they study that weeks material together.  They spend an hour together working on the material.  Each person with be with each girl (or guy) twice.  They learn a book of the bible and meet some people in their church.

Maybe you have to worry about people with devious intentions, but surely there would be easier ways for them to meet people than this.  And the class can have rules like people agree not to meet outside of class beside for study until the class is finished.  They agree to wait to have sex until they are married.

Evernote’s new feature: two-step verification

One of my favorite apps is Evernote.  It is pretty simple.  It is a note taking program that syncs across multiple devices.  You should probably have some critical information at your fingertips at all times.  Bank account numbers.  Medical histories.  Flight information.  Birthdays of family members.  Maybe even social security numbers of family members.  Passwords.  For a long time I have hesitated to tell people I use Evernote for passwords, but now with two-step verification, it would be almost impossible for someone to break into my account.  Not only would they need my password, they would either need to use one of my devices or they would need to steel my phone.  Plus know where my passwords are.  Plus I don’t actually write down the passwords.  I have clues for the ones for banks accounts, etc.

Two step verification is easy.  I use it for my email as well.  In fact, Evernote and Gmail use the same Google product: Authenticator to generate the 6 digit code that is seemingly randomly produced every 10 seconds or so.  If I go to Evernote on a device I have not used before or in a long time, I will be asked to log in and enter my password, just like you do now, but then I am asked for a 6 digit number.  I use Authenticator on my cell phone.  Only the Authenticator on my phone will work.  If for some reason I lose my phone, there is a backup email that can unlock it.  Once I have gone through the two step verification, I do not need to verify myself for some time on that device again.

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