Teenagers have turned to YouTube as their preferred way to watch videos. This may hurt Netflix, which is the largest video service and has been the most profitable.
According to new Piper Sandler research, among teenagers, 29.1% of their daily video viewing is on YouTube. The Netflix figure is 28.7%.
It is hard to say how bad this news is for Netflix. It remains the largest paid subscriber service, with about 220 million subscribers. Most people who use Netflix do not opt for the paid service, although it is heavily promoted. (The best show to watch on Netflix right now.)
Amazon is just behind Netflix in paid subscribers. Because the video service is usually part of Amazon Prime, people get many other benefits, likely to keep them glued to their memberships.
The research is probably worse for the tier of paid streaming video services smaller than Netflix. Most people only take three to four paid streaming video services. If YouTube takes up some of that bandwidth, it is a challenge for Max, Peacock, Disney+ and Hulu, at least.
The other open issue is whether the behavior of teenagers continues to remain the same as they age. Netflix and Amazon create their video programs, which YouTube does not. The paid service has huge libraries, which YouTube, for the most part, does not.
Is the Piper research a big story? It is too early to tell.
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