If you hop onto the YouTube mobile app, there’s a good chance you won’t be leaving anytime soon.

That’s according to Google’s own stats. Earlier this week, the company reported that the average mobile session on YouTube now lasts more than 40 minutes, a 50 percent increase from just a year ago.

The stat was one of the key factoids the company released with its latest earnings report. Thanks to all those eyeballs on all those clips, Google’s ad revenue on video is growing.

“It’s really a combination of all of YouTube’s strengths coming together. It starts with having over a billion users—really almost one-third of the people on the internet—every day watching hundreds of millions of hours on the service. That creates billions of views,” Google Chief Business Officer Omid Kordestani said, according to the International Business Times. “We’re doing also a much better job with our products and our sales force.”

Google said this week that its quarterly revenue increased by 11 percent in the previous quarter, creating a big pop in the company’s stock price.

An Online Video Success Story

For nearly a decade now, political commentator Cenk Uygur has been leading an array of commentators on the Young Turks Network, a progressive-leaning digital video platform. The “discuss everything” approach has been hugely successful for the network, which receives around 90 million views each month on various platforms, primarily YouTube. Uygur’s network can score big-name guests, such as Oliver Stone, and Uygur himself has become a well-known political voice.

But the YouTube-focused dynamic may be changing. Uygur, also known for his stints on MSNBC and Current TV, recently started doing a Facebook show, and it’s become a big hit, too.

“In April we had 24 million views,” Uygur told Fast Company. “It’s unbelievable. Now for the first time in 10 years, there’s a real competitor to YouTube in terms of video platforms.”

Check out the full piece to see what you can learn about online video from someone who’s managed to find consistent success with the medium.

Other Links of Note

An app that keeps it real. Popular online video personality Casey Neistat has launched a buzzy new app, Beme, that tries to capture both an event and your reaction to it.

If you add interaction to your presentation, do you give up control of the clock? Not necessarily, says Idea Architects’ Jeffrey Cufaude.

Recalibrate your thinking on event tech. The Event Manager Blog highlights the mistakes event planners make when figuring out their event technology plans.

(iStock Editorial/Thinkstock)