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YouTube, Hulu led as top online video sites in December

Although it might not have attracted the most visitors, Hulu is proving to be one of the most engaging digital video services available, according to a new report from ComScore.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Much like in the search business, Google is the supreme leader in online video content properties, according to the latest report from ComScore.

Covering the month of December 2011, the report stipulates that YouTube is the main provider here, winning the most unique viewers, hosting the most content, and proving to be the most engaging when judging by minutes per viewer.

While it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that ranking by total unique viewers reveals which companies are resonating more with consumers, that could likely be a mistake.

For instance, take a look at Hulu:

While Hulu finds itself towards the bottom of the top 10 when it comes to attracting visitors (likely because of a pay wall for much of its content), the digital video site is second overall when it comes to user engagement.

The average Hulu visitor spend more than three hours each month on the site, which is far above most of the competition. (Not to mention that Hulu had a very successful 2011 overall as Hulu's business grew by 60 percent since 2010 to approximately $420 million in revenue by the end of 2011.)

Although it is amazing that the average visitor to Google-owned properties spend more than seven hours per month. That's a lot of YouTube videos, although maybe it's not that surprising when you consider how prevalent YouTube is on so many sites and just how easy it is to get sucked into watching 30-second clips of puppies jumping in and out of boxes.

Furthermore, Hulu seems to be making the most (financially) out of the time that users spend watching its videos. The ComScore report also reveals that Hulu leads other online video properties for the number of video advertisements viewed as well as the frequency that ads are shown to viewers.

[Chart via ComScore]

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