Photobucket Survey Reveals Spike in Mobile Video & Fanatical Mobile App Usage during 2011 Holiday Season
Latest consumer survey, supported by data from Photobucket’s 100 million users, reveals trends in online photo and video capturing behavior throughout the holidays
Denver, CO – January 31, 2012 – Photobucket Corporation, the world’s leading dedicated photo and video sharing service, today announced results from its company-sponsored 2011 Post-Holiday Photo Usage survey. Responses from more than 2,200 survey participants, as well as data garnered from Photobucket’s 100 million users and their nine and a half billion image uploads, helped to illustrate the current attitudes and habits of those capturing photos and videos throughout the 2011 holiday season. Among the findings are that video uploads via mobile devices are increasing, and digital camera use has generally decreased, except for important holiday pictures.
Mobile Video Popularity Increases
According to the survey, consumers used mobile devices to capture video during the recent holidays at an unprecedented rate. In fact, of those surveyed, 80 percent took video via a mobile device at least once, and half used a mobile device to record video daily or multiple times per day.
This is an increase from the Photobucket Summer 2011 survey where only 59 percent of participants used mobile devices for video at least once, and 25 percent used mobile devices for video multiple times per day. Although the time of year and the holidays are a factor, the trend is indicative of the overall rising popularity of mobile devices for video.
Photobucket’s internal data further supports this claim; video uploads to Photobucket.com have more than doubled in the past year.
Fanatical Use in Mobile Photo Apps Growing
Data from the 2011 summer survey suggested that there was a high threshold for adoption of mobile apps, but once adopted, there was enthusiastic use; this assertion was again supported in the recent survey. Although 43 percent of respondents to the 2011 holiday survey indicated they have yet to try a mobile app for photos, those who use mobile apps at least once, if not multiple times per day doubled to 42 percent, up from 20 percent in the summer survey.
This enthusiasm is further supported by Photobucket’s internal data, which shows that mobile app use has increased by 64 percent since the launch of Snapbucket, Photobucket’s second mobile app that enables users to “snap” photos from their mobile device, personalize those photos through unique filters, effects, vignettes and frames, and then easily share with their social community.
“We saw explosive growth in mobile in 2011; in fact, we topped 10 million mobile downloads to end the year,” said Munro. “With our integrated platform, we have uniquely positioned Photobucket to bring together the ease of mobile with the creativity and permanence of the web. In the coming year, we look forward to furthering our leadership in the mobile space.”
Digital Camera Use Falters But Still Has a Role
The 2011 holiday survey showed a significant decrease in the number of consumers reporting use of digital cameras for capturing the majority of their images throughout the season, down from 82 percent in the 2010 holiday survey to 64 percent in the 2011 holiday survey. However, 38 percent reported that they switched back to a digital camera for holiday images. This may indicate that although overall digital camera use is declining, these devices still serve a purpose, perhaps for capturing what consumers consider their most important images.
Centralized Organization on Rise
Over the past year, the number of choices for capturing, sharing and storing photos online has grown extensively; however, despite consumers’ tendency to fragment their online photo storage, survey results show a trend toward consolidation of digital memories.
In fact, the survey revealed that only 33 percent of respondents had images on three or more sites; well down from 50 percent in the Photobucket Summer 2011 survey and 52 percent in last year’s holiday survey. Those reporting images on more than five sites have declined as well, from nine percent in both previous surveys, to just under six percent in the most recent holiday survey.
“The explosive growth in the photo-sharing market has shown how popular the market really is. Unfortunately, this growth has also overwhelmed people with choices for sharing and storing images,” said Tom Munro, CEO of Photobucket. “We are happy to see a trend toward consolidation; consumers, after trying multiple options, desire a single place in which they can store and share the story of their life in photos and video. Photobucket strives to be that resource for them to easily save, edit, create and manage all of their photos and video for life.”
Holiday Memories through Photo-Sharing
Other interesting results from the 2011 holiday survey include:
Sharing holiday pictures on social media sites is up:
- Year-over-year, growth went from 57 percent to 80 percent
- Use of images on holiday cards continues to be very popular:
- 41 percent used an image for their holiday card
- 58 percent of those with pets included them in the image on their holiday card
- Popularity of photo-sharing sites also remains high:
- 83 percent of consumers report storing their holiday images online
- Photobucket has provided an Infographic that further explores the survey results as well as additional data garnered from Photobucket’s 100 million users.
How the Survey Was Conducted
The 2011 Post Holiday survey was conducted in January 2012. Results from 2,227 respondents were recorded.
To create a free Photobucket account, users can visit http://photobucket.com or find the Photobucket Mobile Application and Snapbucket app available in the app store on all major smartphone platforms. Photobucket supports Mobile Web, iPhone, Android based devices, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.
About Photobucket
Photobucket is the world’s leading dedicated photo and video sharing service. With over 100 million registered members, Photobucket users upload over four million images and videos per day from the Web and connected digital devices. Photobucket hosts, preserves and protects photos and videos while bringing members the very best browsing, sharing and editing experiences. In addition to uploading and sharing with friends and family on the Photobucket site, users can also instantly share memories across all of the most popular social networks, instant messenger applications, through email, and from their mobile phones. Photobucket’s headquarters are in Denver, Colorado with a regional office in San Francisco, California. For the latest feature announcements and news, please visit the Photobucket press blog at http://blog.photobucket.com/photobucket_press.
