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According to a report by Cisco, more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic in 2022 will be online videos. That is 15 times more than it was four years ago. With that in mind, most marketers and video streaming business owners are worried because they are not sure how to approach the ever-evolving world of video streaming.
Fortunately, this guide is here for you. If you are interested in video streaming and want to ensure that your venture is positioned to grow, stick around. This guide lays out the main upcoming online video trends and anticipates what lies ahead in the world of video streaming.
Video traffic is becoming more reliant on search engines.
According to some researches, people will spend more than 100 minutes per day streaming videos online in 2021. This essentially means that millions of people globally look for clips like yours, and YouTube and Google SEO algorithms are trying to direct them to you.
For instance, if you go to Google and search for a term such as “how-to,” chances are the search results will show a video carousel at the top. This clearly shows that online videos are at the core of search engine results. Actually, videos are at the center and front of the biggest search engine. So, optimize this part of your video streaming strategy.
Also, because YouTube is the leading video search market (80%), you can fine-tune your video content for the platform and Google. A good way to approach this is by using the appropriate keywords, title, and describe your videos.
OTT Will Continue to rise
OTT stands for “over the top,” which refers to streaming media services that deliver content through the internet. OTT platform development and video are intertwined. To be specific, OTT is a platform through which videos are shared with others. Most companies are increasingly choosing OTT as their preferred business model, and this is expected to rise significantly by the end of the year.
In addition, over-the-top media services are skyrocketing. Actually, there are over 185 million OTT subscribers in the United States alone! Moreover, the number is expected to increase this year and beyond because the platforms offer instant and unlimited access to original quality content.
Take Netflix, for instance; the streaming service has over 190 million subscribers all over the world. Thanks to the original and quality content it posts every month. Also, research shows that consumers in the younger age brackets, such as millennials, prefer originality and authenticity over anything else. Genuine videos encourage consumer interactions as they typically debate about different shows on the internet.
This clearly indicates that OTT will continue to grow even more. The target audience is ready and waiting, and most companies will try to take advantage of it. Everyone wants a piece of the OTT cake.
Streaming more docuseries
Documentary miniseries are fast becoming very popular. For instance, more than 34 million households watched 2020’s Tiger King (a true-crime docuseries) in the first ten days alone. By the end of the month, more than 64 million households had watched it.
While some attribute the success to people being home because of lockdowns, more examples followed:
- Shudder released Cursed films
- Apple TV released visible
- Amazon released Ted Bundy, James May, and Falling for a killer
- Netflix has Night on Earth, Cheer and Trial by Media
- Disney+ released into the unknown
And that is nowhere near the entire list. There are many more. ESPN is preparing a 9-part special documentary on Tom Brady, and more will still follow by the end of the year and beyond.
Short-Form Videos are becoming effective for content delivery.
Less than a minute videos like Tiktok are ideal for the short attention span of most social media users. They took the world by storm last year and will continue to shine in 2021 and beyond. There is also a probability that the duration of the videos will increase slightly to accommodate more comprehensive and better content.
As people become more comfortable streaming videos, the duration will likely increase. Actually, according to Tiktok’s Head of Content, Sarah Penny, they are already testing three-minute videos to see how they perform.
Live streams will allow people to address specific pain points or a topic, and then afterward, a short clip from that will be carefully selected, edited, and uploaded on Facebook Stories, Instagram reels, or Tiktok with links to the main clip in the caption.
Youtube, for example, is already testing a beta model of shorts that is technically similar to Tiktok. The move by the video streaming platform clearly validates consumers’ demands for short video consumption.
Some video editing applications make this flawless. For instance, some allow streamers to access their completed live video stream and edit it without necessarily downloading the whole clip. They also allow you to add your own text and branding for publishing on various platforms.
More Authentic Audience Interactions
Consumers bestow their trust and loyalty to a brand or product they can rely on. And live video streams facilitate precisely that. According to BeLive’s CEO, Daniel Mayer, the main idea behind creating a live streaming platform is to establish meaningful interactions between video creators and their target audience.
As such, hosts get a chance to show originality with their audience through informative and engaging live streaming. Now, though the world is slowly returning to normalcy, live video streaming will continue to provide the same advantages to marketers, retailers, and consumers, changing what for several years was an alternative into a permanent engagement approach.
Similarly, consumers like the idea of having the power to select and feel like they are controlling what they watch. Most streaming companies offer the ability to choose between potential advertisements in an upcoming content break. This results in a higher sense of engagement, allowing a brand’s message to land much better and more precisely.
That said, though many businesses and people are still trying the technique out, it is only a matter of time before they realize the actual benefits of video live streaming.
Wrapping it up
Those are the video streaming trends that are shaking the digital world in 2021, from more authentic audience interaction to OTT growth, niche streaming, short video forms, and more. The trends are already transforming 2021, and they are likely to change the entire game in the future.
