Popular online movie site Hulu reportedly catered to 856 million video views during the month of October making it the most successful month of the site's history.
According to comScore Video Metrix, Hulu supported 583 million video views during the month of September with the total number of unique visitors increasing 10% up to 42.5 million. The average Hulu visitor watches an average of 20.1 videos, while YouTube visitors watch an average of 83.5 videos each.
Despite Hulu's biggest month, YouTube led the way among online video sites, with 99% of all videos seen through Google-owned Web sites. YouTube and Hulu were followed by Microsoft, Fox Interactive Media and Viacom Digital.
Rival services have been unable to keep up with Hulu – the company’s support by News Corp. has been difficult to rival – Joost and similar offerings have been left behind by Hulu, though it’s possible that could change.
In an attempt to try and expand and fight off competitors, Hulu released Hulu Desktop last May, a TV-like app designed for computers, not TVs. More recently, the site introduced a Linux Desktop version of its downloadable desktop software.
If Hulu is serious about introducing paid content -- and switching to a paid model -- it's unlikely many of the site's visitors will stick around. There has been some talk that Hulu is simply a fad in an evolving industry. I noted in a previous article that I would be weary of paying to use Hulu, even though I find much of the content available to be enjoyable.
