As a household name, YouTube generates some eye-popping statistics regarding the popularity of online videos. But gaudy viewership numbers haven't translated into ad dollars, which may be the reason behind YouTube's decision to figure out who's watching these videos.
Writing on the official Google blog, YouTube product manager Tracey Chan announced YouTube Insight, a new program that allows anyone with an account (read: users, partners and advertisers) to learn more about their viewers.
The new stats will track viewership by region, compare videos to others in the same category and break out the life cycle of a given video.
"With this information, you can concentrate on creating compelling new content that appeals to your target audiences and post these videos on days you know these viewers are on the site," Chan wrote.
YouTube is expected to continue to build additional features for Insight, including how viewers found a particular video.
While Google hasn't had a lot of success monetizing YouTube, the company has begun to work more closely with advertisers. Earlier this month, Toyota signed on for a $4 million campaign to promote its new Corolla on YouTube. At the same time, online video continues to grow in popularity, and sites like Dailymotion have come on strong, attempting to take a bite out of YouTube's yet-to-be-monetized market share.
