YouTube traffic up after removing Viacom videos

Who says Daily Show clips and other copyrighted materials drive most of the traffic on YouTube? Oh right, Mark Cuban. Well, recent events may be proving the blog maverick wrong.

Hitwise has released figures showing that YouTube's market share has actually gone up by 14% since removing 100,000 videos at Viacom's request earlier this month. As of Tuesday, YouTube was the 12th most visited internet domain in the US.

Perhaps more significantly, earlier this month YouTube traffic climbed higher than the traffic to every US television network's web sites combined. Sure, more people are watching TV than watching web videos. But when it comes to the battle for online eyeballs, YouTube is winning, with or without partnerships with major content producers.

[via NewTeeVee]