YouTube traffic crushing Hulu’s
By Matt Jansen
With Hulu now open to the public it will probably enjoy a surge in traffic, but the company has a long way to go before it even approaches the size of YouTube’s audience.
YouTube launched in 2005, Hulu in 2007. That two-year lead has created a stunning gap in traffic between them. In February 2008, Compete reports 220,478 people visited Hulu, which is .4% of the 59,241,290 who visited YouTube.
For content owners seeking an online delivery tool and advertisers looking to reach a wide audience, it’s a compelling point in YouTube’s favor.
But, volumes of traffic isn’t accounted for here in the form of videos embedded in other sites. Without some insider information from YouTube and Hulu, it’s almost impossible to measure that. Even during its private beta, Hulu allowed users to share and embed videos, which provided fertile ground for sites like OpenHulu.com.
What about even before people visit Hulu.com or YouTube.com, what are they searching for? Here’s a snapshot from Google Trends, which reflects the same sort of proportion Compete.com indicated. It compares queries from people searching for hulu or hulu.com to youtube or youtube.com.
This traffic gap is likely one reason Hulu is struggling to establish exclusivity agreements. Content owners want the freedom to push their content through whatever channel generates the most traffic, and enforces their copyrights best.
Hulu is also lagging behind YouTube in compatibility. To date, it lacks support for video playback on the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The problem is caused by an outdated Flash installation on those systems that doesn’t support the format Hulu encodes its videos in.
Until Hulu re-encodes its videos or console makers upgrade the version of Flash installed on their systems, YouTube will continue to enjoy a significant competitive advantage because its videos play on the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3.
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March 14th, 2008
Who provides the DRM and encoding services for Hulu?