Netflix Beats YouTube in Popularity, If Not Total Traffic

We recently pointed out that Google has a medium-term plan to refocus YouTube on channels. A recent study from Goldman Sachs shows one of the reasons why this is important. According to the GS survey of 200 people, more said they prefer to watch online on Netflix than on YouTube. This is despite the fact that YouTube had 144 million US unique visitors in February versus 20 million subscribers for Netflix.

Netflix was the easy winner in all demographics, but, interestingly, the margin was largest among viewers 50+. Among the older demo, Netflix was the leader by more than a 2:1 margin over iTunes, with YouTube coming in 3rd. In the other demos, YouTube was 2nd. Hulu was much more popular with the youngest demo, where it finished a close 3rd. In the two older demos, Hulu came in 5th.