An analysis of one million broadband subscribers in North America, conducted by Ellacoya Networks, found that HTTP accounts for approximately 46 per cent of all traffic on the network.

P2P is a strong second place contender at 37 per cent of total traffic. The remainder is made up of newsgroups (nine per cent), non-HTTP video streaming (three per cent), gaming (two per cent) and VoIP (one per cent).

Streaming video represents 36 per cent, and streaming audio five per cent of all HTTP traffic. YouTube alone comprises approximately 20 per cent of all HTTP traffic, or nearly 10 per cent of all traffic on the internet.