Netflix ‘slowly increases’ North American web domination

Netflix continues to “slowly increase its domination” of North American fixed internet networks, accounting for 36.5% of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours, according to Sandvine.

The broadband network solutions firm said in its latest ‘Global Internet Phenomena’ report noted that Netflix’s share of web traffic was up slightly from its second half of 2014 report, when it accounted for 34.9% of downstream traffic.

YouTube accounted for 15.6% of downstream traffic on fixed networks in North America, second to Netflix, but accounted for most mobile downstream traffic at 21.2%. On mobile networks, Facebook came second with 15.8% of downstream traffic.

On fixed networks, Amazon Video held “only a fraction of the bandwidth share when compared to Netflix” with 1.97% of peak downstream traffic in North America. However, this was up from 1.90% a year ago.

“Network traffic in the Americas seems to be getting increasingly concentrated. Netflix continues to rise as a percent of North American fixed network traffic,” said Sandvine CEO, Dave Caputo.

“In Latin America, when you add up the properties of Facebook and Google – including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Google Play, etc. – these two Internet giants control over 60% of mobile network traffic. Corporate decisions by these major players, like Netflix’s recent decision to encrypt their streams or Facebook’s decision to auto-play videos uploaded to its site, can instantly and dramatically impact subscribers and all internet access networks.”