YouTube: 5 Billion Served

Sam Gustin writes: Google's YouTube is absolutely crushing the competition in Web video, according to new data from market research firm comScore.

In July, Web users watched a staggering 5 billion videos on Google sites, (YouTube accounts for 98 percent of Google's video traffic), earning it 44 percent market share.

The next closest competitor was Fox Interactive Media, which came in at a paltry 3.9 percent market share. Microsoft and Yahoo's video offerings earned 2.5 and 2.4 percent market share, respectively. Hulu, the ad-supported Web video partnership between Fox and NBC earned an anemic 1 percent market share.

In terms of unique viewers, YouTube was dominant as well, drawing over 90 million unique visitors for the month. The next closest was Fox Interactive Media, with 54 million visitors, most of whom were watching videos on MySpace, the social network.

Perhaps the most telling stat involves YouTube's stickiness, which is driven by the social nature of the site that no competitor has been able to replicate.

YouTube users watched an average of 55 videos in July -- no other Web video service had users who watched more than 12 videos on average.