First, video killed the radio star – then it came for the internet

In the 1990s, Web 1.0 startups described the internet as an “information superhighway.” Well, if that was a superhighway, today’s internet might best be likened to a home theater hurtling through space.

The January 2023 Global Internet Phenomena Report from intelligence firm Sandive was just released, and there’s one major takeaway: video is king. Last year, video streaming made up 65% of all traffic – defined as the total amount of data that’s downloaded and uploaded by a given website – on the global web, up from about 54% in 2021.

Some more facts about last year’s internet usage:

• 48% of all internet traffic came from just six companies: Netflix, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.
• Netflix comprised ~14% of all internet traffic – or the same as all of Google’s properties combined.
• Facebook saw the biggest single year drop in traffic, from 15.11% of all volume in 2021 to 6.45% in 2022. Google took the second biggest loss, down 34% from 20.99% in 2021 to 13.85% in 2022.

🔎 Zoom out: In 2013, about 29% of the developing world had access to high speed internet. By 2021, that number had more than doubled to 57%. And as that number continues to rise, Netflix better make sure to stock up on bingeable content and keep the 19 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy available.