Four out of 10 South Korean users of YouTube spend an hour or more watching videos on the platform on a daily basis, according to survey results recently released by local pollster Embrain.

Of 1,000 Korean YouTube users aged 19-59 surveyed, 42.58 percent responded that they spend at least one hour on the video platform each day. The proportion of those who were spending more than three hours on YouTube was 5.2 percent.

By demographic, the majority of those who responded they were watching more than an hour of video on YouTube were in their 20s (61.6 percent), followed by those in their 30s (45.2 percent), 40s (34.8 percent) and 50s (29.6 percent).

Meanwhile, 29.7 percent of survey respondents said they spent between 30 minutes and one hour on YouTube daily, while 27.7 percent said they were on YouTube for less than 30 minutes a day.

The top-cited reason for using YouTube was “the diversity of videos available” (48.9 percent), according to the survey, which allowed multiple responses.

In terms of the form of videos being watched, a majority 55.9 percent said they were primarily watching user-generated content, while 36.5 percent said they usually watched professionally made content.

As for the type of content being watched, the No. 1 category was informational content (62.5 percent), followed by music and broadcasts (50.1 percent), educational courses and lectures (36.5 percent) and fitness videos (33.9 percent).

Moreover, 59.9 percent of survey respondents believed YouTube was replacing existing media channels. Another 64.3 percent said they viewed YouTube as an “important channel for web search.”

According to local app tracker WiseApp, YouTube’s monthly active users in Korea stood at 30.93 million last month. During the month, Koreans spent a total of 33.3 billion minutes on YouTube, up 42 percent from the previous month’s record of 23.4 billion minutes.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)