| "82% of internet traffic is video" | A Cisco forecast, not a measurement. Cisco's June 2016 white paper projected video at 82% of consumer internet traffic by 2020 (archived copy). The same forecast’s press release gave the other common version, Internet video at 79% of all internet traffic by 2020, up from 63% in 2015 (Cisco press release); that share covers business as well as consumer traffic, so one forecast produced both numbers. The June 2017 edition moved the date to 2021: video viewing rising from 73 percent to 82% of total IP traffic, and 80 percent of all internet traffic, up from 67 percent in 2016 (Cisco press release, still online). The November 2018 edition projected 82% of all IP traffic by 2022 (archived copy). Cisco has since taken both white papers down. The 2011–2016 edition, published in May 2012, put Internet video at 54 percent of consumer Internet traffic in 2016 (archived copy, July 2012), and a revised version at the same address said 55 percent (archived copy, March 2013), the figure 2013 lists quote. The earlier figure lists still quote, "80% by 2019", is the May 2015 edition: IP video at 80 percent of all IP traffic by 2019, up from 67 percent in 2014 (Cisco press release, still online). | Old forecast |
| "Online video users will double to 1.5 billion by 2016" | A Cisco forecast made in May 2012: "there are expected to be 1.5 billion Internet video users by 2016, up from 792 million Internet video users in 2011" (Cisco press release). It is a four-year-ahead projection from 2012, not a count, and is usually repeated without the date. Cisco’s own June 2017 release put the 2016 figure at 1.4 billion Internet video users, excluding mobile-only viewers, short of the forecast (Cisco press release, June 2017). "Nearly double" was trade-press rounding; Cisco’s release did not use it about video users. | Old forecast |
| "Video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic from search" | A vendor’s sales line, not a study. Brightcove’s August 2015 blog post promoting its Gallery video-portal product told readers they "can expect to see on average a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engines", with 105% more time on site and twice the conversions, and named no source, sample or method (Brightcove blog, Internet Archive capture). The post now returns a 404, so lists that credit Brightcove link to nothing. | No published study |
| "Video users get 41% more web traffic from search" | A share of traffic, not more traffic. For its July 2015 report Pardon the Disruption: The Impact of Video Marketing, Aberdeen Group surveyed 168 organizations and compared those using video in at least one marketing channel with those using none. Search brought video users 31.6% of their web traffic against 22.4% for non-users, and 31.6 is 41% more than 22.4 (Aberdeen report, hosted by Vidyard). That compares where each group’s visitors came from, not how many visitors either group had. The two groups also worked differently: 64% of video users had a formal SEO strategy, against 37% of non-users. The same survey is the source of “video marketers grow revenue 49% faster”, traced on our legal video marketing page. | Analyst survey, 2015 |
| "Video is most of internet traffic" | The newest video share its producer states on a public page is Sandvine's: 65% of all internet traffic in 2022 (Sandvine, January 2023). Later reports from its successor, AppLogic Networks, keep the figure behind a download form. | True, but dated |
| "500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute" | Google first put it in writing in April 2019: its written testimony to a U.S. House Judiciary hearing says "We see over 500 hours of video uploaded every minute" (congress.gov). YouTube's CEO repeated more than 500 hours in a September 2019 speech published on the YouTube blog. Google has not published how the figure is measured. Since mid-2025, YouTube's press page instead says over 20 million videos are uploaded a day. That counts videos, not hours, so the two can't be compared. Before 2019, YouTube’s own statistics page gave lower rates that lists still quote: 72 hours a minute in early 2013 (capture, February 2013), 100 hours from June 2013 (capture, June 2013) and still in December 2014 (capture, December 2014), and 300 hours in 2015 (capture, February 2015). The 300 hours had already been reported in December 2014: Tubefilter wrote that over 300 hours a minute, a ReelSEO figure, was verified by a Google spokesperson (Tubefilter, December 2014). In July 2015 YouTube’s chief executive said at VidCon that over 400 hours are uploaded every minute (Tubefilter, July 2015), a figure the statistics page never printed. The page dropped the line by September 2015, so 72, 100, 300 and 400 hours a minute are each YouTube figures for one period, not current rates. The earliest 500 we found is a forecast: in November 2015 ReelSEO fitted a trendline to YouTube’s past figures and wrote that YouTube “will likely realize around 500 hours” a minute that month, adding that “the model above estimates 490 hours/minute” (ReelSEO, November 2015, Internet Archive capture). Lists that cite that post for 500 hours are citing a spreadsheet projection; Google’s own 500 came in 2019. | Replaced by YouTube |
| "Viewers retain 95% of a message in video and 10% in text" | It first appears, with no source, in Insivia's 2013 list of video statistics as 95% against 10% (archived copy). Insivia now says it came from a small survey of around 200 B2B buyers in the late 2000s, calls the result "directional" and "not a peer-reviewed neuroscience study," and publishes no data. | No published study |
| "Blog posts with video attract 3x as many inbound links" | One blog measuring its own archive. In October 2009 Casey Henry counted the domains linking to each of the more than 3,800 posts on the SEOmoz blog and found that "Posts with videos included will attract almost 3 times more ILDs than a plain text post", where ILDs are in-linking domains; posts combining video, images and lists drew almost 6 times as many (SEOmoz blog, October 2009). The comparison is with plain-text posts, not every post without a video, and it shows which posts on one SEO blog were linked more, not that adding a video earns links. Lists usually credit it to Moz’s home page, or to nothing. | One blog, 2009 |
| "59% of executives would rather watch video than read text" | A 2010 survey of senior executives at large U.S. companies, asked about text and video on the same page. Forbes Insights, working with Google, surveyed 306 executives at U.S. companies with annual sales over $500 million in September and October 2010: 59% agreed that "if both text and video are available on the same topic on the same page, they prefer to watch the video" (Forbes Insights report, December 2010, PDF). The same report is the source of "65% of executives visited a vendor’s website after watching a video", which is about work-related video. Neither figure describes consumers or people in general. | Executives only, 2010 |
| "75% of users visit the marketer’s website after viewing a video" | Two findings from the executive survey above, merged. The Forbes Insights report says "Three-quarters (75%) of executives surveyed said they watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly", and separately that 65% had visited a vendor’s website after watching a work-related video (Forbes Insights report, December 2010, PDF). A January 2014 statistics list printed "75% Of Users Visit The Marketer’s Website After Viewing A Video" next to the weekly-viewing line (DigitalSherpa blog, January 2014, Internet Archive capture), giving the weekly-viewing share to the website visits and turning executives into users. We found no study in which 75% of people visited a website after a video. | Two figures merged |
| "Visitors spend 88% more time on a website with video" | We found no study behind it. The earliest dated version we found is a January 2015 post by Adelie Studios, a studio that makes animated explainer videos, whose list of the top video marketing statistics for 2015 included "The average internet user spends 88% more time on a website with video" and credited it to Mist Media, with no link or study (Adelie Studios blog, January 2015, Internet Archive capture). We found no Mist Media publication carrying it. A May 2015 CodeFuel blog post repeated the line, crediting Adelie Studios, and later lists repeat it without a study behind it. | No published study |
| "Facebook gets 8 billion video views a day" / "500 million people watch video on Facebook daily" | Both come from one sentence on Facebook’s Q3 2015 earnings call (November 4, 2015): "more than 8 billion daily video views on Facebook, and more than 500M people who are watching daily" (Facebook Q3 2015 earnings call transcript). Facebook counted a video view at three seconds, including videos that autoplayed as people scrolled News Feed (Facebook for Business, May 2014, Internet Archive capture), and did not say how a daily viewer was counted. Lists often date the 500 million to 2016 because Sheryl Sandberg repeated it on the January 2016 call. | True, but dated |
| "100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook every day" | A January 2016 snapshot. Mark Zuckerberg said on the Q4 2015 earnings call that 100 million hours of video were watched daily on Facebook (Facebook Q4 2015 earnings call transcript), without saying how watch time was measured or whether muted autoplay counted. | True, but dated |
| "10 billion videos are watched on Snapchat every day" | Bloomberg reported on April 28, 2016 that Snapchat users were watching 10 billion videos a day, up from 8 billion in February, a number Snapchat confirmed (Bloomberg, April 2016, Internet Archive capture). Snapchat counted a view as soon as a snap started playing, so the total can’t be compared with Facebook’s three-second views. | True, but dated |
| "Periscope users watch 110 years of live video every day" | A company figure for app viewing only. On its first anniversary in March 2016, Periscope said more than 110 years of live video were watched every day on iOS and Android (Periscope "Year One" post, Internet Archive capture). The count covered live viewing in the apps, not broadcasts watched inside Twitter, on the web or as replays. Periscope shut down in 2021. | True, but dated |
| "82% of Twitter users watch video on Twitter" | A 2015 survey, not usage data. In May 2015 Twitter reported that 82% of its users watch video content on Twitter (Twitter blog, May 2015, Internet Archive capture), from surveys it commissioned from Research Now in 14 countries, about 1,000 people each, and it presented the figure as a U.S. finding. It measures whether people said they watch at all, not how often. The same post is the source of “90% of Twitter video views happen on a mobile device”: Twitter gave 90% “according to our own internal data”, with no period, so that figure counts views rather than people and is not from the survey. Twitter is now X and has since changed how it counts video views. | Survey, 2015 |
| "62% of consumers have a negative perception of a brand that publishes a poor-quality video" | A 2013 survey by a video-hosting company, and “poor quality” meant buffering, not production. In November 2013 Brightcove, which sold paid video hosting, published a survey of more than 1,200 consumers who watch online video at least twice a month, framed against free YouTube hosting. It led with playback problems: 75 percent reported some buffering and freezing. Its line on brands was that “When consumers are confronted with poor-quality video, they are 62 percent more likely to have a negative perception of the brand that published the video” (Brightcove blog, November 2013, Internet Archive capture). The blog words it as a relative likelihood and the accompanying infographic as a share of people; neither says how the survey defined a negative perception or which country it covered. Quoted without that context, as in a 2016 statistics deck that wrote “a poor quality video”, it reads as a finding about how well a video is made. | Vendor survey, 2013 |
| "55% of people watch online video every day" | We found no study behind it. The earliest dated version we found is a March 2013 post by Three Motion, a UK video agency, which said "78% of people watch at least once a week and 55% watch everyday" with no source, sample or country (Three Motion blog, March 2013, Internet Archive capture). The post now redirects to the agency’s home page, and later lists repeat the line without a study behind it. | No published study |
| "A third of all online activity is spent watching video" | We found no study behind it. The earliest version we could date is a line in Insivia’s list “50 Must Know Stats About Video & Animation Marketing 2013”: “1/3 of all online activity is spent watching video” (Insivia, 2013, Internet Archive capture). Other items on that list name comScore, Nielsen or Forbes; this one names nothing. In January 2014 DigitalSherpa, a social media agency, listed “A Third Of All Online Activity Is Spent Watching Video” with a block credit to QuickSprout, Insivia and itself (DigitalSherpa, January 2014, Internet Archive capture). By September 2014 an Entrepreneur contributor wrote that “Digital Sherpa reports” it (Entrepreneur, September 2014), and WordStream’s 2017 statistics list repeated it with no link (WordStream, March 2017, Internet Archive capture). No version says what was measured, where or when. It is also not one of the 16 statistics in the 2016 deck behind HubSpot’s video statistics post, though some pages link that post for it. | No published study |
| "20% of viewers click away from a video within 10 seconds, 45% by one minute and 60% by two minutes" | A 2010 benchmark of short clips, rounded up. Visible Measures, a video analytics company, studied how viewers left more than 40 million clips of under five minutes, nearly 7 billion views in all, leaving out ads (Visible Measures blog, September 2010, Internet Archive capture). Its research brief put the share of starting viewers gone by 10 seconds at 19.4%, by 60 seconds at 44.1% and by 120 seconds at 58.5% (Visible Measures research brief, PDF, Internet Archive capture). A July 2012 Video Brewery post rounded these to 20%, 45% and “almost 60%”, and Insivia’s 2013 list dropped the “almost”. They are averages across one company’s tracked players in 2010, and the shares are cumulative, not a decision made at the one-minute mark. | Rounded up, 2010 |
| "4 out of 5 users will click away if a video stalls while loading" | Google’s sentence, with no study behind it. In a 2012 Think Quarterly essay on speed, Google’s SVP of Infrastructure Urs Hoelzle wrote that “Four out of five internet users will click away if a video stalls while loading” (Think with Google, January 2012, Internet Archive capture). The essay credits “our research” for its search-speed figure but cites nothing for this one, so we can’t say what was measured. Insivia’s 2013 list repeats it almost word for word. | No study cited |
| "More video is uploaded to YouTube in 30 days than the three major U.S. TV networks created in 30 years" | YouTube said 60 years, and it was a hypothetical. Announcing over 35 hours of video uploaded every minute in November 2010, YouTube’s blog said that if three of the major US networks had been broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the last 60 years, “they still wouldn’t have broadcast as much content as is uploaded to YouTube every 30 days” (YouTube blog, November 2010, Internet Archive capture). Lists halved it to 30 years and turned round-the-clock broadcasting into what the networks “created”. It rests on the 2010 upload rate; the row on uploads per minute shows how that changed. | Reworded |
| "36% of online consumers trust video ads" | A global average from a 2011 survey. Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising survey of more than 28,000 internet respondents in 56 countries, published in April 2012, found that “36 percent trust online video advertisements” (Nielsen Wire, April 2012, Internet Archive capture). It is an average of online respondents across 56 countries, not a U.S. figure, and it is from 2011. | True, but dated |
| "Videos 15 seconds or shorter are shared 37% more than videos of 30 seconds to a minute" | One ad network’s campaigns. Jun Group, which distributed branded “social video” ads, said in January 2011 that across more than six million user-initiated views of its campaigns in late 2010, “Social video ads of :15 seconds or less are shared nearly 37 percent more than those between :30 seconds and one minute” (Jun Group release, January 2011, Internet Archive capture). It describes opt-in ads in one network. Lists dropped “nearly” and “ads” and applied it to all video. | One network, 2010 |
| "90% of users say a video about a product helps them decide" | We found no study behind it. The earliest dated version is an unsourced line in a July 2012 Video Brewery post, which gave “90%” as “The percentage of online shoppers at a major retailer’s website who said they find video helpful in making shopping and buying decisions” (Video Brewery, July 2012, Internet Archive capture). Insivia’s 2013 list dropped the retailer and made it all users. An earlier report with the same number is one retailer’s own site survey: in September 2010 Internet Retailer wrote that Swimwear Boutique “found that 90% of them said the videos helped them make a decision to purchase a swimsuit”, with no sample size (Internet Retailer, September 2010, Internet Archive capture). Nothing links the two, so we don’t treat it as the source. | No published study |
| "100 million internet users watch online video every day" | We found no study behind it. The earliest dated version is the same July 2012 Video Brewery post, which gave “100 Million” as “the number of Internet users who watch online video each day”, with no source, country or date (Video Brewery, July 2012, Internet Archive capture). comScore did report that more than 100 million Americans watched online video on an average day at the end of 2011 (comScore, February 2012), but that is a U.S. figure and no list cites it for this line. | No published study |
| "45.4% of internet users watch at least one video a month, and the average user sees 32.3 videos a month" | Both numbers are about video ads, from one comScore month. comScore’s September 2010 rankings put the reach of streaming video ads at 45.4% of the total U.S. population, with a frequency of 32.2 ads per ad viewer (comScore release, October 2010, Internet Archive capture). The same release said 83.9 percent of the U.S. internet audience watched online video that month. A July 2012 Video Brewery post dropped the word “ads”, and Insivia’s 2013 list also turned 32.2 into 32.3. | Reworded |
| "The average user spends 16 minutes and 49 seconds watching online video ads every month" | A trade-press division, not a comScore figure. comScore counted 3,080 million minutes of streaming video ads viewed in the U.S. in November 2011 (comScore release, December 2011, Internet Archive capture). Tubefilter divided that by comScore’s 183,160,000 viewers of online video content and got “just under 16 minutes and 49 seconds” per person (Tubefilter, December 2011). It is one month’s total spread over video viewers; lists credit it to comScore as a monthly habit. | Reworded |
| "Enjoying a video ad increases purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%" | One opt-in survey, comparing enjoyers with everyone else. Unruly, a social video ad company, surveyed viewers of four branded campaigns on its platform in 2011, 976 completed responses, and its white paper says “Video enjoyment increased purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%” (Unruly white paper, January 2012, Internet Archive capture). The figures compare respondents who said they enjoyed the video with those who did not, so they show an association, not what enjoyment causes. | Correlation, 2011 |
| "80% of online video ads are abandoned within the first half of the ad" | It is 80% of the people who quit, not 80% of ads. Vindico, a video ad platform, wrote in May 2012 that “if a viewer were to abandon an ad, an average of 80% of the time it would happen before the midpoint of the video ad” (Vindico, May 2012, Internet Archive capture). Most viewers finished: completion rates were 89% in full-episode players that quarter. Vindico published the post to correct the “80% of viewers” reading, but Insivia’s 2013 list still used it. | Misread |
| "Video in an introductory email cuts unsubscribes by 75%" | We found no study behind it. The earliest dated version is a bullet on a VisibleGains webinar page from early 2011: video in email “Reduces your opt-out rate by 75%”, credited to Eloqua, with a link to a 2010 panel video rather than any Eloqua study (VisibleGains, 2011, Internet Archive capture). A January 2012 Demo Duck post added “In tests” and “introductory email”, and Video Brewery’s July 2012 list repeated that version. | No published study |
| "Videos increase understanding of your product or service by 74%" | A line about pitches, credited to two learning researchers, that became a claim about products. The earliest dated version is an October 2013 Forbes contributor post for the Young Entrepreneur Council, which said that “according to research by Mayer and Anderson”, engaging both sight and hearing increases viewers’ “comprehension/understanding of your pitch by 74%” (Forbes, October 2013, Internet Archive capture). Seven weeks later Quick Sprout, in a post whose infographic lists that article among its sources, turned it into “a 74% increase in your visitors’ understanding of your product or service compared to pictures” (Quick Sprout, November 2013, Internet Archive capture). The educational psychologists Richard E. Mayer and Richard B. Anderson published two experiments in the Journal of Educational Psychology in which college students learned how a mechanical device works from animations with and without narration: 102 students and a bicycle tire pump in 1991 (ERIC record), and 280 students in 1992 (ERIC record). Neither paper’s published summary gives a 74% figure, and neither tested marketing or product video. | No published study |
| "Video in email raised subscriber-to-lead conversion by 51%" | We found no study behind it. A January 2012 Demo Duck post said one email campaign with video “drove a 51% increase in subscriber-to-lead conversion” and credited a 2010 Blue Sky Factory webinar (Demo Duck, January 2012); we found no Blue Sky Factory material with the figure. Video Brewery’s 2012 list turned the credit into “one online marketer”. | No published study |
| "16% of YouTube videos are embedded, linked or shared on Tuesdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m." | Two 2009 charts merged into one. Sysomos, a social media analytics company, examined more than 100 million blog posts from July to September 2009 for embeds and links to videos on 12 platforms, YouTube most of all (Sysomos, October 2009, Internet Archive capture). Its day-of-week chart puts Tuesday on top, at about 16.1% of the week’s embeds and links, and a separate chart shows the busiest hours were 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern. Lists joined them into “16% on Tuesdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.”, which neither chart says: the 16% is the whole of Tuesday, across 12 video sites, and it counts blog posts, not shares. | Merged charts, 2009 |
| "86% of colleges and universities have a presence on YouTube" | A 2010-11 survey of U.S. four-year colleges, credited to a university that doesn’t exist. The Center for Marketing Research at UMass Dartmouth interviewed social media staff at U.S. four-year accredited institutions, 456 interviews in all, and found YouTube in use at 86%, the first year it asked about YouTube (UMass Dartmouth, 2011, Internet Archive capture). Insivia’s 2013 list credited “the University of Dartmouth”. The figure is U.S.-only and from 2010-11. | True, but dated |
| "Comedy is the most popular online video content at 39%; 33% of content viewed is news and 31% is music" | Shares of viewers, not of content. Burst Media, an online ad network, surveyed 1,025 U.S. online adults on its own sites in October 2011 and reported that “Comedy is the most popular form of online video content among all viewers (38.8%), followed by news (33.3%) and music (31.2%)” (Burst Media release, November 2011, Internet Archive capture). Each figure is the share of video viewers who say they typically watch that type, with several answers allowed. Insivia’s 2013 list kept the comedy line but turned news and music into shares of the content people watch. | Reworded |
| "30-second mobile video ads have an 88.3% completion rate" | One mobile ad network, one quarter. Rhythm NewMedia’s report on its own premium network in the U.S. for Q4 2011 charted an average in-stream completion rate of 88.3% for 30-second ads and 89.2% for 15-second ads, on an axis that starts at 80% (Rhythm Insights, Q4 2011, PDF, Internet Archive capture). Rhythm sold these ads, and the report says the data represents only its own properties. | One network, 2011 |
| "By 2016, two-thirds of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video" | A 2012 forecast, not a measurement. Cisco’s February 2012 mobile traffic forecast said “Two-thirds of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2016”, while its body text said mobile video would account for over 70 percent by the end of the forecast period (Cisco VNI mobile forecast, February 2012, Internet Archive capture). The headline and body disagree, and both were projections made four years ahead. | Forecast, 2012 |
| "By 2017, online video will account for 74% of all online traffic" | A forecast that was misquoted. Cisco’s May 2013 forecast said “consumer Internet video traffic will be 69 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2017” (Cisco VNI forecast, May 2013, Internet Archive capture). The earliest 74% we found is Invodo’s February 2014 statistics summary, which footnotes that forecast for “74% of all Internet traffic in 2017 will be video” (Invodo summary, PDF, Internet Archive capture). The number changed, consumer traffic became all traffic, and later lists dropped the fact that it was a forecast. | Misquoted forecast |
| "65% of video viewers watch more than three-quarters of a video" | Retail product videos on one vendor’s platform, watched to 80%. Invodo’s December 2013 benchmark report says “approximately two in three video viewers watch to 80% completion”, with 65% in its callout, from videos it hosted for retailers and brands between April and September 2013 (Invodo benchmark report, PDF, Internet Archive capture). Lists turned 80% into three-quarters and dropped both the retail videos and the vendor. The same report is the source of “1.81x more likely to buy”, traced on our ecommerce page. | Reworded |
| "75% of online video viewers have interacted with an online video ad this month" | A survey a video ad company commissioned, about the past month. Tremor Video, which sold video ads, said in May 2012 that in its study with Frank N. Magid Associates “75 percent viewers have interacted with online video ads in the past month” (Tremor Video release, May 2012, Internet Archive capture). The release gives no sample size and does not define “interacted”. | Vendor survey, 2012 |
| "87% of online marketers use video content" | A survey of award judges with no stated size. Outbrain surveyed senior brand and agency marketers who were judging the 2012 Effie Awards and wrote: “At 87% of respondents, video is the most common form of content created” (Outbrain blog, March 2012, Internet Archive capture). It describes those judges, not online marketers in general. | Reworded |
| "72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate" | A belief, asked only of businesses already using video. Wyzowl, a video production company, gathered its 2016 statistics by surveying 230 unique respondents, marketers and online consumers together, and showed its business questions only to those whose company used video (Wyzowl, State of Video Marketing 2016, Internet Archive capture). Of those, 72% “believe that it has improved the conversion rate of their website” and 93% “believe that it has increased user understanding of their product or service”. Nothing was measured, and the page doesn’t say how many of the 230 were marketers. It was 230 respondents, not 230 companies. Wyzowl’s 2023 edition asked video marketers the understanding question again: 96% (Wyzowl 2023, Internet Archive capture). | Vendor survey, 2016 |
| "77% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product by watching a video" | The same 2016 survey, and its “consumer” questions went to every respondent, marketers included: Wyzowl says the second part of the survey “was shown to all respondents” (Wyzowl 2016, Internet Archive capture). 77% said they had been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video, 98% said they had watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service, and 74% of those who watched one “subsequently bought it”. All three are self-reported. The survey’s 69% line on text versus video is traced on our short-form video page. | Vendor survey, 2016 |
| "97% of consumers would share a brand’s video" | Wyzowl’s own inference from the 3% who said never. In its 2016 survey, 70% said they had shared a brand’s video with a friend or on social media, and 76% said they would share a branded video “if it was entertaining”. “Only 3% of consumers say they would never share a branded video under any circumstances”, and the page turned that into “make a great video and 97% of consumers would happily share it” (Wyzowl 2016, Internet Archive capture). The 97% is not an answer anyone gave: it is everyone who didn’t pick “never”. The page names no country, so versions that say “97% of U.S. consumers” add one. | Inferred, 2016 |
| "45% of businesses have an explainer video on their home page, and 83% say it works" | Self-reported by businesses already using video, in a survey run by a company that makes explainer videos. Wyzowl’s 2016 survey found “45% of businesses who use video say they have an explainer video on their home page”, and 83% of those said it was effective (Wyzowl 2016, Internet Archive capture). “Effective” was the respondents’ own judgment. | Vendor survey, 2016 |
| "61% of people have been put off buying by a bad explainer video" | The same 2016 survey, asked of all respondents. 61% said they had been put off buying a product after watching a bad explainer video, and the most common reason, at 37%, was that the video didn’t explain the product or service clearly enough (Wyzowl 2016, Internet Archive capture). Wyzowl calls the 37% “the majority”; it is the largest single reason, ahead of low quality and length. | Vendor survey, 2016 |
| "63% of businesses use video, and 82% say it’s an important part of their strategy" | The 2017 edition’s figures, quoted with a link to the 2016 survey. The 2016 page says 61% of businesses “currently use video as a marketing tool” and 88% say it is “an important part of their marketing strategy” (Wyzowl 2016, Internet Archive capture). The 63% and 82% come from the 2017 edition, which surveyed 311 unique respondents in December 2016: “63% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool” and 82% “feel video is an important part of their marketing strategy” (Wyzowl 2017, Internet Archive capture). | Wrong edition |
| "84% of consumers have been convinced to buy by watching a brand’s video" | The page it comes from also says 74%. Wyzowl’s 2017 statistics page, from 311 unique respondents surveyed in December 2016, says in its video-effectiveness section that 84% of consumers have been convinced to make a purchase after watching a brand’s video. A few lines earlier, in its section on businesses that don’t use video, it says 74% of respondents have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video (Wyzowl 2017, Internet Archive capture). The page doesn’t explain the gap, and both are self-reported. The 2016 edition put it at 77% (above), the 2018 edition at 81% (Wyzowl 2018, Internet Archive capture), the 2020 edition said 84% again (Wyzowl 2020, Internet Archive capture), and the 2024 edition said 82% of people had been convinced by watching a video (Wyzowl 2024, Internet Archive capture). | Two numbers, one page |
| "79% of consumers would rather watch a video than read about a product" | A 2017 survey by a company that makes explainer videos. In the same 311-respondent survey, 79% of consumers said they would rather watch a video to learn about a product than read text on a page, and 91% said they had watched an explainer video to learn about a product or service (Wyzowl 2017, Internet Archive capture). The page doesn’t say how many of the 311 were consumers. The 2016 edition’s version of the first line, 69%, is traced on our short-form video page. | Vendor survey, 2017 |
| "90% of consumers watch videos on mobile" | Watching at all, not mostly. Wyzowl’s 2017 page says 90% of consumers watch videos on their mobile, and its next line says 60% prefer to watch videos on their desktop (Wyzowl 2017, Internet Archive capture). So the 90% counts anyone who watches on a phone at all, and most of the same people preferred a desktop. | Vendor survey, 2017 |
| "83% of businesses say video gives them a good ROI" | A belief, in a 2017 vendor survey. Wyzowl’s 2017 page says 83% of businesses believe that video gives them a good ROI (Wyzowl 2017, Internet Archive capture); its 2016 page put it at 76% of businesses who use video (Wyzowl 2016, Internet Archive capture). Its 2018 edition said 78% of marketers (Wyzowl 2018, Internet Archive capture), its 2019 edition 83% again (Wyzowl 2019, Internet Archive capture), and its 2020 edition 89% of video marketers (Wyzowl 2020, Internet Archive capture). None of them defines or measures ROI, and none names a country. | Vendor survey, 2017 |
| "81% of businesses say video has increased their sales" | It is about explainer videos. The line sits in the 2017 page’s explainer-video section: 81% of businesses said that their explainer video has helped them increase sales (Wyzowl 2017, Internet Archive capture). It describes businesses with an explainer video, by their own account, not every business that uses video. | Reworded |
| "87% of businesses use video as a marketing tool" | Each Wyzowl edition prints its own figure, from its own small survey of marketers and online consumers together. The 2018 edition, from 570 unique respondents surveyed in December 2017, said 81%, up from 63% in 2017, with 85% calling video an important part of their marketing strategy and 99% of businesses who use video saying they would continue in 2018 (Wyzowl 2018, Internet Archive capture). The 2019 edition, from 613 respondents surveyed in December 2018, said 87%, with 91% of video marketers calling it important (Wyzowl 2019, Internet Archive capture). The 2020 edition, from 656 respondents surveyed in December 2019, said 85%, with 92% (Wyzowl 2020, Internet Archive capture). It was 91% in 2023, from 528 respondents surveyed in November 2022 (Wyzowl 2023, Internet Archive capture), and 91% again in 2024, from 967 surveyed in late 2023 (Wyzowl 2024, Internet Archive capture). All are self-reported, none of the pages says how many respondents were marketers, and Wyzowl now updates a single page each year, so the old year addresses redirect to the latest edition. | Vendor survey, 2018-24 |
| "84% of marketers say video has increased traffic to their website" | Marketers’ own judgment of their results, in a 2019 vendor survey. Wyzowl’s 2019 page says 84% of marketers say video has helped them increase traffic to their website and 81% say it has helped them generate leads (Wyzowl 2019, Internet Archive capture). Nothing was measured, and versions that say “84% of small businesses” name a group the page doesn’t. Later editions put the traffic line at 91% in 2023 (Wyzowl 2023, Internet Archive capture) and 86% of video marketers in 2024 (Wyzowl 2024, Internet Archive capture), so the year attached to a quoted figure matters. | Vendor survey, 2019 |
| "96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn about a product" | The 2019 edition of a survey by a company that makes explainer videos. Wyzowl’s 2019 page says 96% of people say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service, 79% say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or an app, and 68% would most prefer to learn about a new product or service by watching a short video (Wyzowl 2019, Internet Archive capture). All three are self-reported. The first line was 98% in the 2016 edition, 91% in the 2017 edition and 95% in the 2018 edition (Wyzowl 2018, Internet Archive capture), and the 2020 edition said 96% again (Wyzowl 2020, Internet Archive capture). Wyzowl’s 2025 and 2026 editions are traced on our motion graphics page. | Vendor survey, 2019 |
| "64% of marketers say VR video has been successful" | 64% of the 11% who tried it. Wyzowl’s 2019 page says 11% of video marketers had used VR as a channel, down from 14% in 2018, and of those, 64% said it had been successful for them (Wyzowl 2019, Internet Archive capture). It describes the few who tried VR, by their own account, not marketers in general. | Reworded |
| "99% of marketers say they’ll keep using video" | A plan, from people already using video. Wyzowl’s 2020 page says 99% of people who use video for marketing say they’ll continue using video in 2020 (Wyzowl 2020, Internet Archive capture). It doesn’t cover marketers who don’t use video, and it says nothing about live streaming, which some lists attach it to. | Reworded |
| "80% of video marketers say video has directly increased sales" | Video marketers’ own judgment, in Wyzowl’s 2020 survey. The page says 80% of video marketers say video has directly helped increase sales, 87% that it has increased traffic to their website, 81% that it has increased the time visitors spend on page, and 83% that it has helped them generate leads (Wyzowl 2020, Internet Archive capture). Nothing was measured. Wyzowl’s 2024 edition put the sales line at 87%, and its list of the videos marketers made that year has sales videos at 30% of video marketers (Wyzowl 2024, Internet Archive capture), which has been repeated as “30% of sales pros”. | Vendor survey, 2020 |
| "The average person watches an hour and a half of online video a day" | A survey answer, not a measurement. Wyzowl’s 2018 page says the average person watches more than an hour and a half of online video content per day, with around 15% averaging more than three hours (Wyzowl 2018, Internet Archive capture). The page doesn’t say how the question was asked or how the average was worked out, and its 570 respondents included marketers. | Vendor survey, 2018 |
| "85% of people want to see more video from brands" | Wyzowl’s 2018 survey, about that year. 85% of people said they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018, and where both video and text are available on the same page, 72% said they would rather use video to learn about a product or service (Wyzowl 2018, Internet Archive capture). Both are self-reported answers from a survey run by a video production company. | Vendor survey, 2018 |
| "92% of mobile video viewers share videos with others" | A 2012 diary study of 200 paid panelists, credited by lists to the wrong company. The figure comes from the IAB’s Mobile Phone Video Diaries, run by On Device Research, which reported that "an overwhelming majority (92%) of viewers share mobile video they have watched on their phone with others" (IAB press release, December 2012). The study contacted 200 U.S. panelists, pre-screened as mobile video users and paid $10 each, for a week-long diary in November 2012 (IAB report, PDF). "Sharing" included showing someone the video on your own phone. Lists credit it to Invodo, a video-commerce company whose statistics page repeated it. | Misattributed |
| "Only 24% of brands are using online video to market to consumers" | The source said 23%, and it counted video ads, not video marketing. Kantar Media reported in December 2012 that of the more than 4,100 brands advertising on U.S. national TV or over 90 leading video sites in October 2012, 23% ran online video ads (Kantar Media release, December 2012, Internet Archive capture). It tracked pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll placements with a paid service the release was launching. A 2013 Digiday list rounded it to 24%, and the release’s address now redirects to an unrelated website. | Reworded |
| "59% of viewers watch a video under a minute to the end" | A number read off a chart, not one Wistia published. Wistia’s May 2012 post on video length plotted average audience engagement across its hosted business videos, and the highlighted line for videos under one minute ends at about 59% at the last frame (our reading of the chart in Wistia, May 2012). The post’s text gives no figure for it. It is an average across all sub-minute videos on Wistia, not a test showing that a 60-second video keeps 59% of viewers. | Chart reading, 2012 |
