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YouTube Search Identifies Pop-Culture Trends

Make a list and check it twice, especially as the holidays grow closer -- it may just give search marketers a glimpse into human behavior. Wall Street analyst Colin Sebastian at Baird Equity Research seems interested in YouTube searches, the cities with the most Amazon job openings, and the most expensive cars for sale on eBay.

In "Baird's Book of Lists," entertainment analysts at the firm believe they can provide a glimpse into interesting trends and emerging themes that might not be obvious.

Sebastian writes that YouTube searches offer a glimpse into pop-culture trends. Ranking the top searches from YouTube from the past 30 days, he writes: "Apparently, there was some pent-up demand for the Cuphead video game," which he recalls seeing in development a couple of years ago. 

Citing YouTube, the research note lists the top five searches in the past 30 days as Cuphead, Rockstar, Post Malone, FIFA 18 and Star Wards.  

In August 2017, YouTube launched a color-coded monetization platform run by learning algorithms that give creators more transparency into how videos on their channel are monetized, according to Jordan E, in a post. A tweak to the algorithm now provides fewer "misclassifications." This means many more "millions" of videos will become fully monetized.

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"Baird's Book of Lists" also cities the number of corporate job openings at Amazon.com. Out of the 11,781 open positions on the afternoon of October 27, 2017, about half are in the West -- mostly Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area, he writes in a research report. He uses the number of openings to determine the company's interest in an area. 

Sebastian believes this job hunt can provide insight into the city where Amazon may plant its new headquarters.

Washington State with 4,733 job openings; California, 1,195; Virginia, 527; Massachusetts, 328; and New York, 319 are the states with the most current Amazon corporate job openings.

"If we exclude West Coast locations Seattle and San Francisco, which have the most job openings, then the metropolitan areas with the largest number of corporate job openings are in Washington D.C/Northern Virginia (531), Boston (326) and New York City/ NJ (315)," Sebastian wrote.

He is not dismissing Austin, where Google recently opened an office. It's a 300,000-square foot leased building taking up 10 floors in the downtown area, where about 450 employees work. "The 29th floor is home to the SXSW Tech Talk room, which is fashioned after a conference area in Google’s Mountain View headquarters," according to one report.

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