Netflix and Youtube use up 50 per cent of the internet

Watching streaming video is obviously a popular activity these days, but did anyone think that it was as prolific as this? In a new study by Canadian internet monitoring firm, Sandvine, it's attributed as much as 50 per cent of all internet traffic to just two streaming services: Netflix and Youtube.

Netflix's influence is most strongest in the US, with a near one third share of all traffic, but it's still hugely popular elsewhere too. In the UK, where it's only been an available service for two years, it has a 20 per cent share of all traffic within the country.

The report also highlights how much peer to peer sharing has fallen back in its share of traffic over the past few years, dropping to lower than 10 per cent of daily traffic in North America. Five years ago, it was over 31 per cent of the total.

However the Sandvine data doesn't just point out internet bandwidth portions, it also points the finger at a few services. Youtube is criticised for its double dip, daily quality drops, where during peak hours, the servers struggle to deliver HD video. While far smaller, Hulu doesn't suffer from these same issues during its peak periods.

Speedtest was also criticised for being inaccurate. Its servers were consistent, but one always markedly underperformed when compared to the other in Sandvine's testing. The strange thing is that both tested servers were in the same building, suggesting that ISP access speeds have a massive impact on your results.

So don't take Speedtest results as gospel.

If you want to read more of the report, sign up for a free Sandvine account and head here.

KitGuru Says: There's a lot of other interesting information in the report. If you're a net stats nerd like me, you'll find it interesting. 

[Cheers Mashable]

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