The average number of videos watched on YouTube each day continues to grow, now passing 4 billion. That's twice the number watched in May 2010, and four times the volume reported in October 29. It's not just the viewing that's exploding - currently, an average of 60 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute, up from 10 hours-per-minute four years ago, 20 hours-per-minute in May 2009, and 35 hours=per-minute in November 2010.
Despite these numbers, it's still not clear whether Google is turning a profit on YouTube yet. Only 1 in 10 of the videos watched in any week are "monetized." Analysts suggest that YouTube's revenues are on the fast track, rising from $825 billion in 2010, to $1.3 billion last year, and is predicted to surpass $1.7 billion this year. While that sounds like a lot, the storage and server costs to host, handle, and distribute all that content to the world can't be cheap.
Source - YouTubers Watch 4 Billion Videos per Day, The Social Graf
Despite these numbers, it's still not clear whether Google is turning a profit on YouTube yet. Only 1 in 10 of the videos watched in any week are "monetized." Analysts suggest that YouTube's revenues are on the fast track, rising from $825 billion in 2010, to $1.3 billion last year, and is predicted to surpass $1.7 billion this year. While that sounds like a lot, the storage and server costs to host, handle, and distribute all that content to the world can't be cheap.
Source - YouTubers Watch 4 Billion Videos per Day, The Social Graf