Video streaming is on the rise with Netflix dominating
With 32.3 percent of the market share, Netflix reigns the entertainment streaming world, but Amazon, Hulu, and YouTube still maintain their piece of the pie.
While it appears Netflix is continuing to grow as the dominant video streaming service in the U.S., its competitors are also growing, according to Internet research firm Sandvine.
What gives?
Video streaming, or "real-time entertainment," is on the rise overall and those companies involved are seeing their businesses grow. However, their market share has remained static. According to a survey (pdf) released Tuesday by Sandvine, Netflix has 32.3 percent of the market share, while YouTube has 17.1 percent, Hulu has 2.4 percent, and Amazon has 1.31 percent. And, those numbers haven't changed much since last year.
"Consistent with all of our recent reports, the bulk of total usage growth comes from real-time entertainment traffic. Maintaining its status as the dominant traffic category in the region, Real-Time Entertainment is responsible for over 68 percent of downstream bytes during peak period, compared with 65 percent six months ago," Sandvine wrote in its report. "Netflix continues to be the unchallenged leader for traffic, accounting for 32.3 percent of downstream traffic during peak period."
The research firm predicts that these numbers will remain steady in the U.S. in the next few years to come, despite widespread growth of mobile.
The future will see "real-time entertainment applications dominate fixed access networks, accounting for two-thirds of total data usage in 2018, driven largely by ubiquitous integration between devices (e.g. smart TVs, set-tops, game consoles) and streaming services," Sandvine wrote. "Web Browsing will continue be the second-largest source of traffic, partly driven by the number of mobile devices at use in the home."
For 2013, Netflix has experienced a good year so far. After the debut of its wildly popular original series "House of Cards," the company reported first quarter revenue of $1.02 billion. During the quarter, Netflix added more than 3 million streaming members, bringing the total to more than 36 million. Netflix said it had signed another 2.03 million domestic subscribers, bringing the total in the United States to 29.17 million subscribers, up from 23.41 million a year earlier.