YouTube's Young Audience Is Making It A Major Rival To TV

• YouTube's audience is among the youngest of any social network: Teens and young 20-somethings make up a higher proportion of users than any other age demographic.
• It's also got impressive international reach: YouTube ranks as the social site with the third-greatest penetration rate worldwide among web users at 22%, according to GlobalWebIndex, just ahead of Twitter.
• YouTube isn't just popular among young viewers, it's preferred: YouTube was rated by millennials as the top place to watch content, ahead of ESPN, Hulu, Facebook, and Comedy Central.
• Advertisers looking to YouTube will want to keep in mind what online videos people actually like to watch: The youngest adults gravitate toward music, comedy, and how-to online videos. Those 50 and older are most inclined to watch news, education, and also, how-to videos.

The report is full of charts (over 20 charts) and data that can be downloaded and put to use.

In full, the report:

• Looks at overall social networking adoption in the US and globally
• Assesses the most important demographic skews at the top social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Tumblr
• Examines whether Facebook is losing out on teen and millennial users as sites like Instagram grow
• Compares how demographics have changed over time as older social networks have matured
• Identifies the social networks that have become more and less gender-skewed in the last year
• Digs into demographics at top social messaging apps, including Snapchat

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