(GlobalWebIndex includes YouTube in its social network category, which tends to raise the level of engagement and time spent with social media overall.). Subscription video services and digital audio posted significant gains. Between H1 2019 and H1 2020, smart TV penetration declined from 46.0% to 44.8%, according to GlobalWebIndex.

(GlobalWebIndex does include YouTube among its social networks, which tends to raise the figures for social media reach and time spent.). Time spent figures may also tell us something about the video-on-demand (VOD) market in Russia. Average VOD time climbed from 44 minutes to 51 minutes YoY.

Of course, YouTube accounts for a sizable share of video consumption. GlobalWebIndex includes YouTube in its list of social network destinations, which tends to increase the reach of social networking, as well as time spent with the medium.

It should be noted that GlobalWebIndex includes the video platform YouTube in its social media category, which tends to increase the figures for both engagement and time spent. Music streaming, gaming, and digital video took up roughly equal amounts of internet users’ time on a typical day in H1 2020, at 54 minutes, 56 minutes, and 1:00, respectively.

For daily time spent, internet users devoted an estimated 1:37 to streaming or watching TV online. Social media usage was equally widespread, at 93.2% of internet users; in fact, there may be some overlap between social media and video consumption, as GlobalWebIndex includes YouTube in its social network category.

On the other hand, the time spent daily with social platforms averaged 1:50—almost an hour more than time devoted to video streaming, at 58 minutes. This may partly be because GlobalWebIndex includes YouTube in the category of social media. While digital behaviors are on the rise, takeup of many digital devices is lackluster, not least because financial and other pressures weigh on many consumers.

In Kantar’s worldwide “COVID-19 Barometer: Wave 3” study, conducted April 10–13, 2020, YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook had the greatest increases, with around half of total respondents saying they were using each of those properties more. Among Gen Z respondents, YouTube and Instagram stood out—71% reported using YouTube more, and 63% upped their Instagram usage.

And more than half of the time spent streaming (52%) goes to Netflix and YouTube, which depend on on-demand videos. Netflix and YouTube dominate viewership, but people’s attention is becoming more divided as new platforms emerge. We forecast that time spent with Netflix each day is growing, but its share of US daily video time peaked in 2019 at 27.0% and will decline to 25.7% by 2021.

YouTube viewing will make up a sizable proportion of this digital video total time spent. This is reflected by its strong performance in Google’s stable of advertising performers—whereas we expect Google’s search business to decline 7.4%; its display revenues (buoyed by YouTube) will grow 3.8% in 2020. Display Takes Pole Position as Search Stumbles.

It’s worth noting that GlobalWebIndex includes YouTube in its social media category, so that anyone streaming video on that platform counts as a social network user. This may also help to explain why the penetration rates of social media and digital video are so similar. Time spent on social networks slipped by 10 minutes between H1 2019 and H1 2020—but it remained high by global standards, at 2:47.