Video on the Move – The Rise of Mobile Video Consumption

Digital video experts have no doubt noticed the tremendous rise in the number of people now opting to view videos on mobile devices. This unprecedented growth can be attributed to a number of developments in the IT industry. It comes as no major surprise to industry experts that mobile video viewing would rise, although the exact scale has caught many off guard.

Anywhere you look, there are people watching videos on their phones or other portable mobile devices. Get on the bus or on the subway, and you will notice a huge number of people bent over their mobile devices watching videos. It is worth looking at some of the factors that have led to the explosion of videos on mobile. Since this is a trend that is expected not only to continue but also grow tremendously, players in the industry may be interested in knowing what has fuelled this growth.

Major News Events
Major news events have no doubt contributed a great deal to the rise in the number of people viewing videos on mobile devices. One such event that comes to mind is the explosion of the Space Shuttle. Being a society that it is always on the move, it is not practical to rush home to watch breaking news on televisions sets for example. The availability of instant news straight to mobile has made it possible to watch news as it unfolds straight from a mobile device.

Ongoing news events have also contributed to this growth of videos on the move. Following the OJ Simpson’s case for example may have been of interest to many, who simply needed to pull out their mobiles and follow the unfolding ‘saga’.

Development of New Apps
New apps are always being developed seemingly every other day, but there are those that have no doubt made an impact as far as mobile video viewing is concerned. These are the apps that have made videos on mobile easier to watch and more accessible. Two examples that come to mind here are Braindex and Vine. Vine especially could contribute to more people watching videos on the go. First we had Instagram that changed the way we share and view photos. Vine seems to have done the same thing, only for videos. Even with the 6 second limit for videos shared using Vine, there are still loads of people sharing and watching videos on Twitter.

Twitter as a social networking site has a huge following. Now with the inclusion of Vine, we can only expect more videos to be made available to more people.

There are many more such resources that have made videos more accessible to mobile users. Another such example is the Facebook Messenger app. This app allows users to send short video messages to other users. This and the fact that mobile devices are now more sophisticated than ever, it is only natural that we would see an explosion in the number of people watching and sharing video content on mobile. Even skeptics agree that this is not a fad, and can only be expected to get bigger.