360-degree video may not be as hyped as it once was, but YouTube has the largest stock of spherical video on the web and it’s one of the easiest places to discover new stuff. For creators, heat maps can offer insights into audience behavior so they can better understand best practices for producing spherical video.
A lot of creators are still having a tough time creating effective 360-degree content. YouTube had some interesting heat map insights to offer, most interestingly that people spend 75% of their time in 360-degree videos looking at the 90-degree slice that’s in front of them.
Though advertisers have yet to really break into 360-degree advertising due to its costliness and VR’s nascent market size, tools like this will definitely give them greater insights into where the eyes of their viewers are.
In addition to the analytics updates, YouTube also announced that it’s opening applications today for its recently announced VR Creator Lab, which will give enterprising VR video creators a 3-month program in LA
