translated from Spanish: YouTube: 85% of people watched a live stream during the last year

YouTube’s Culture and Trends team presented its latest global report, which analyzes video production and consumption trends on the platform based on a need that crosses people around the world: connection. The pandemic changed habits and behaviors by creating new ways to use video to bond, for example, watching videos with others – whether physically or virtually – increases immediacy, generating a strong sense of connection. In addition, it minimizes the barriers of audiovisual genres and opens the way to new ways of connecting with people, cultures and passions through content. According to an Ipsos study for YouTube, for 53% of people, a video they watched over the past 12 months helped them feel like they’re in a different place. The report was presented by Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture and Trends at YouTube at the Cannes film festival on Monday. This report is divided into three pillars linked to how the sense of connection was established between creators and their audience, and between people through video. It is available at the following LINK. Creating community through live video”Some content creates a sense of connection by optimizing immediacy. Intimacy is reinforced by the ‘real-time’ nature of content experiences that allow the viewer to participate in an activity or experience simultaneously with others,” said Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture and Trends at YouTube.This yearning for connection was manifested in various ways within the platform: first people turned to what they are passionate about and that allows them to be part of larger conversations, such as live finals that brought people together remotely: from football to gaming and even freestyle rap, a phenomenon that is growing more and more on YouTube. Red Bull Batalla de Gallos live broadcasts from Argentina, Mexico, Spain and the global final totaled more than 20 million views. Also, the rise of LoFi hip hop livestreams created spaces for those looking to focus on an activity, such as studying or working. That is, a solitary activity that is transformed into a shared experience. In this sense, the music channel 24/7 Lofi Girl generated 890 million streams of people looking for accompaniment while studying and working. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of connection is the mother of all fandoms: bts’ Army. For the release of “Butter,” the one-hour live stream of a piece of animated butter received over 960 thousand maximum simultaneous views and over 17 million views in total. Thus, it became a trend in most of LATAM, being within the top 5 positions in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Argentina.For more information on how this trend develops worldwide, you can enter HERE. Creating familiarity through authentic content”Video as a mode of communication has become even less mediated, and artists and creators are developing the idea of what ‘authenticity’ means, forging new types of connections with viewers in the process,” explained Karla Agis, Manager of Culture and Trends for YouTube in Latin America.As the boundaries between the public and the private crumble, video viewers are looking for content they can identify with. 62% of the people surveyed agree that the content does not need to have a professional look to find it valuable*. In this way, several channels grew in recent months by addressing their content through informality. In recent years, the increase of unique and underrepresented voices remained constant: On April 7, Tomiii11, a 10-year-old boy from Chile made headlines when, by sharing his story and his desire to be a popular creator and streamer, he went from 2 thousand subscribers to 3 million in 24 hours. A few days later the situation was repeated, this time with the Mexican grandmother and expert in guerrerense cooking Cooking with Nymph. Her desire to become an outstanding creator went viral and aroused the interest and support of one of the biggest fandoms in Mexico: the BTS Army, going from 4 thousand to 500 thousand subscribers in just a couple of days. For more information on how this trend is developing worldwide, you can enter HERE. Creating participation through immersive experiences”Immersive experiences have been another example of a motivator of connection, since the viewer assumes an almost leading role in the content. This is particularly present in the gaming community which presents itself as one of the most influential spaces in youth culture” Karla Agis, Manager of Culture and Trends for YouTube in America Latina.La collaboration between creators reflects the evolution of their relationships as a community and provides reality show-like entertainment between established and emerging creators with the audience. So far this year, videos with “Egoland” in the title have added more than 280 million views, and the average daily views of videos related to the game Rust – such as this one that brings together more than 70 creators from Spain and Latam – grew more than 300% in January 2021 compared to December 2020.On the other hand , Friday Night Funkin is the latest rhythm and obsession game from the creators of YouTube, which has received more than 900 million views in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Peru in 2021. This content, which generated more than 120 thousand related video uploads in the region during 2021*, reflects the audience’s role in expanding the game’s universe and reinterpreting it by creating their own versions. This connection through immersion in ‘role-playing games’ that come to simulate one’s presence has manifested itself in other ways, from VR Chat creators who reuse anime characters in different situations, to adrenaline-filled first-person experiences in nature or even Motovlogs. In this category, Argentine creator Pablo Imhoff more than doubled his total number of subscribers in 2020 (vs 2019). For more information on how this trend is developing worldwide, you can enter HERE. Feeling connected is a fundamental human need and the rapid adoption of video as a tool to facilitate this sense, has made it play a fundamental role in people’s lives. Creating community, familiarity and participation are ways to help people feel more connected rather than isolated, and provide opportunities for creativity and entertainment to bring deeper value to people’s lives.

Original source in Spanish