The video bandwidth tracking firm Qwilt reports Amazon Instant Video is now using more bandwidth than Hulu and iTunes, which translates into more users streaming video from the online retailer than the other two sources.
Qwilt uses its proprietary software housed inside companies like Hulu and Netflix to track consumer viewing habits. Amazon's own metrics have the company tripling the number of videos streamed from its site during the last year.
"I think the growth you probably can attribute it to [Amazon bundling] Instant Video inside Amazon Prime," Dan Sahar, Qwilt co-founder and VP of product marketing said. "That gave them a very good head start in terms of subscriptions, definitely against Hulu."
Despite topping Hulu and iTunes, Amazon has not even approached the amount of bandwidth that Netflix routinely gobbles up, according to Qwilt. Overall, the company noted video traffic volume was up 94 percent year over year.
"We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars in great TV shows and movies for Prime members and it's working," said Bill Carr, VP of digital video and music for Amazon. "As part of their membership, Amazon Prime members can watch their favorite movies and television shows on an unlimited basis, and as we add original content like "Alpha House," "Bosch," "The After," "Mozart in the Jungle" and "Transparent," we have no doubt that customers will be even more delighted with the selection available."
Carr predicts that with the addition of FireTV, which plugs into any HDTV for direct access to a variety of video sources, even more content will be viewed.
Amazon will have to work hard to make any ground against Netflix and YouTube, the second most popular video site, according to Qwilt. Sahar said he is very impressed with how Amazon managed to move past Apple and Hulu in just one year.
"They didn't really put all their effort into marketing," said Sahar. "This is almost organic growth by Amazon, which is pretty phenomenal."
Qwilt said its methodology of tracking usage is much different than other services available, such as Nielsen. In those cases the companies record each time a video is clicked on as a view, even if the person only stayed on the video for a short period. Qwilt measures the total amount of bandwidth sucked up by each site.
