YouTube 'top' video site in US

1st July 2008

Video-sharing website YouTube is the most visited site in the US, according to online intelligence service Hitwise.

YouTube accounted for 75.43 per cent of all US visits in May, up by 26 per cent in the preceding year.

In a custom category of 63 video websites, YouTube was followed by MySpaceTV (9.01 per cent of US visits), Google Video (3.73 per cent), Yahoo! Video (1.92 per cent) and Veoh (1.13 per cent).

Hitwise director Heather Dougherty said there was a "strong brand awareness in the video arena".

Google still benefits from YouTube's popularity, however, as it bought the video-sharing site in 2006.

In October of that year, the BBC reported the deal by which Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion (£883 million) in shares, with the two companies continuing to operate independently.

YouTube kept its brand, staff and co-founders.

At the time, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said the deal to join with Google could let YouTube benefit from "its global reach and technology leadership".

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said YouTube had "an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organise the world's information".