Netflix, the video streaming service provider, accounts for 15 percent of global internet traffic, making it the world’s largest data-consuming application, according to research by US network operator Sandvine (PDF) , Such as BBC mentioned.
Overall, videos account for more than half of the net traffic, while other types of broadcast content, such as embedded videos on websites, account for 13.1 percent, YouTube 11.4 percent, and browsing 7.8 percent.
According to the report, PC games in addition to file sharing also provide an increased slice of data traffic. Videos account for 58 percent of downloads, followed by browsing at 17 percent. Video games represent 7.8 percent of downloaded data, and social media accounts for 5.1 percent. Data uploads are dominated by torrenting, accounting for 22 percent of its weight.
All this puts severe pressure on networks around the world, as future video downloads will only increase traffic as their quality continues to improve. In the United States, Netflix accounts for up to 40 percent of its download traffic during peak hours. However, Netflix is the most efficient video provider on the Internet thanks to its encoding technology. In terms of uploads, file sharing services account for 22 percent of the data traffic, which is higher in Europe and the Middle East at 31 percent.
The type of content we download in the first place may vary by region. In the Asia Pacific region, embedded videos are mostly watched by people on websites, followed by Facebook and Netflix. Meanwhile, in Europe, we download most of the data from YouTube, followed by Netflix, embedded content, and Amazon Prime.
According to the research, most of the content is now encrypted, which is good news for users, as this means that those who access the network do not see their data usage. However, this does not protect them from piracy or data theft.
The report surveyed more than 150 service providers with 2.1 billion internet subscribers.
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