According to Decodo’s second annual Most Scraped Websites report, the video-first platform recorded a 321 per cent surge in scraping traffic, climbing from outside the top 10 last year to claim the number one position in 2025.
The findings point to a profound shift in the data economy as businesses move away from traditional, text-heavy sources toward multimodal platforms rich in video, audio and social interactions. Video and social media now account for 38 per cent of all scraping activity, ahead of search engines (24 per cent) and e-commerce platforms (22 per cent). YouTube, Coupang and ScienceDirect were among six new entries to the top 10, marking the sharpest year-on-year change since Decodo began tracking the sector.
Industry experts say the trend is being driven by escalating demand for diverse, high-quality datasets to train next-generation AI models. “Data might have been the new oil in 2006, but in 2025 it’s the fuel that powers artificial intelligence,” said Gabrielė Verbickaitė, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Decodo. “AI systems have an appetite for fresh, varied training data at unprecedented scale.”
As companies compete for an edge in AI, access to rich external data sources is fast becoming a decisive competitive advantage. Decodo’s analysis suggests that organisations prioritising diverse content inputs will be better positioned to innovate in an era where multimodal AI reshapes not only technology, but entire industries.
