Is Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chromecast usage really flattening out, as a recent Parks Associates study suggested? App developer Videostream doesn't agree, saying Chromecast owners are increasing the frequency and time spent using the device.
Videostream founder and co-creator Jason Moore told FierceOnlineVideo that almost half its Chromecast customers are accessing the streaming stick daily, and spending an hour or more using the device. "We've seen nothing but increases in Chromecast activity," he said.
The Videostream app is a Chrome extension that allows users to upload local files and view them on their TV set via the Chromecast device. Moore said that Videostream can monitor user sessions through the app, giving the company detailed data on user behavior. While the company can't release most of those results due to privacy concerns, he said that Videostream was able to collect data from a much larger sample base--250,000 subscribers, compared to Park's survey of 10,000 broadband households in the United States.
According to Parks, only 73 percent of Chromecast owners used the device "at least monthly" in the first quarter of 2014. That is down from 78 percent in the third quarter of 2013.
Videostream's data, Moore said, suggests that usage isn't dropping.
Chromecast users are building the device into their daily lives, Moore said. "In March, only 31 percent of sessions were within a day or less apart. By May, this had tightened up drastically, and over 45 percent of sessions were a day or less apart."
Session length has increased dramatically since the beginning of 2014, when Videostream launched its app. "Near the beginning of the year we saw lots of users 'testing the water' with Chromecast; they'd boot it up, play with it for 15 minutes or so and leave," Moore said. "Now users have really settled into their groove with the product, and average session times have soared to over an hour in length."
Moore said he has offered the company's aggregate data to Parks Associates in order to help the research firm develop a more accurate picture of user behavior on the device. "The goal here is to give a good window into what users are doing with Chromecast."
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Videostream's file upload app for Chromecast. (Courtesy of Videostream) |
For more:
- see Videostream's website
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