Due to its role in providing us with everything ranging
from tutorials, mindless entertainment, free education, all the latest music,
and much more, most of us can find the icon for YouTube on our phone's menu
without even having to look.
In fact, many of us sign up to get notified directly when
a new video appears that might interest us, showing just how much YouTube has
become a part of our digital lives.
But beyond knowing it's popular, free, and international,
not too many people know just how influential YouTube is, nor do they know how
it came to be the behemoth it is today.
Below you will find some facts and figures about YouTube
that will help demonstrate how much of an impact this social video site has had
on our culture and society, and it will make you think a little bit more about
the massive community that exists behind the website we all know and love so
much.
1. YouTube
Was Originally Designed to Be a Dating Site
For most of us, YouTube just appeared on the internet one
day, and we simply started using it. But that YouTube launched the way it did
actually represents a pretty big shift in the original purpose of the
site.
Most people don't know the original concept for the site
was for it to be a dating platform.
The idea was that people would send in videos of
themselves, describing who they were, their interests, likes, dislikes, etc.,
and then viewers who shared those interests could respond with a video of their
own.
However, shortly after launching this idea, co-founders
Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley found out that people didn't really
want to upload videos of themselves for a dating website. It was too personal,
and, perhaps, just a little too creepy for most singles' tastes. The slogan
they invented, "Tune in, Hook up," probably didn't help things much either.
To get people into the idea, Karim, Chen, and Hurley went
to Craigslist to try and find people to post videos (a move even they know was questionable), and they
even offered women $20 if they loaded up a video. But practically no one
participated, calling into question the viability of the website these three
had begun building.
Knowing they were onto something but realizing dating
wasn't the answer, the three co-founders decided to switch the focus of the
site so that anyone could upload a video to the internet. In removing these
restrictions, people became more interested.
The first video, "Me
at the Zoo," which was posted by Karim, went up in 2005, and from
there, the site quickly took off and became the internet institution it is
today.
2. PayPal
Indirectly Helped Fund YouTube From the Start
This fact can be misleading. PayPal didn't have anything
to do with the start of YouTube, at least not directly.
Instead, PayPal's role was to employ the three people - Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley - who would later go on to form
YouTube.
Part of the site's seed money came from the bonuses PayPal
paid out to these three, and instead of using that money to put in a pool at
their house or go on vacation, they put it into the business. Soon thereafter,
the site took off and became one of the most visited and profitable sites in
the world.
Just think - if these three people desperately needed
renovations on their home, or if they'd been itching to take a sabbatical and
travel the world, YouTube as we know it today may have never come into
existence.
What a terrible world that would be.
3. Google
Bought YouTube for $1.65 billion Just a Year and a Half After it Launched
For some, the part of this fact that falls into the "things you didn't know" category might be that YouTube is not an independently run company. Instead, it forms part of the conglomerate Alphabet, which is made up of Google and some 200 other smaller companies. Considering how powerful both Google and YouTube are on the internet, it should not be much of a surprise that Alphabet is one of the most valuable companies in the world. Take a look at how things have gone for the company over the past decade or so:
The company's value has more than doubled in less than
five years!
But for those who already knew about the partnership
between YouTube and Google, you might be intrigued to know that it was bought by Google for a whopping $1.65
billion just 18 months after it first launched on the web.
This just shows how ready the world was for streaming
videos to become a part of their lives. The rise of Netflix, which also took
place at around the same time - c. 2007 - demonstrates even further what was
missing from the digital world in the early 2000s.
For the founders of YouTube, it's hard to imagine a better scenario. They went from being PayPal employees who used their bonuses to launch the site to being multi-millionaires in a matter of just a few short years. Lucky them!
4. YouTube
is a More Popular Search Engine than Bing, Yahoo!, and Ask
There is a bit of debate as to whether or not YouTube is a
search engine or a social media site. Those who consider it a search engine use
the fact that one must search for content to watch it as an argument to support
their position, but advocates of it being a social media site point to the
site's dependence on user-generated content as a means for classifying it in
the same category as sites such as Facebook and Instagram.
But let's leave this debate aside for a moment and just
pretend YouTube is a search engine, because, if this were the case, it would be
the second most popular search engine in the world, behind only, you
guessed it, Google.
This means the site's parent company, Alphabet, possesses
the world's two most popular search engines. Not a bad spot to be in.
Of course, if you choose to not consider YouTube a search
engine and prefer to think of it as a social media site, this doesn't take away
from its considerable reach in today's society.
According to the Alexa rankings of websites around the world,
Google and YouTube are the two most-visited. So, no matter which way you slice
it, Alphabet claims to top two spots on the web.
5. There
Are 98 Different Versions of YouTube
Part of the reason YouTube has been able to reach the
level it's at today is due to its global appeal. People can upload videos from
anywhere in the world, and they can attract viewers from all over, as well.
Recognizing this as an important part of the site's
success, the folks at YouTube responded by creating regional versions of
YouTube. These country-specific editions of YouTube make it easier for people
to find content more relevant to them. It will prioritize content made in a
certain language and makes it easier for YouTube content creators to spread
their reach within the audiences most likely to respond to them.
As of writing, there are 98 different versions of YouTube
available all around the world.
6. YouTube
is the Frequent Target of Censorship Attempts
It doesn't take long to realize that YouTube has the
potential to be a vehicle for social change. Anyone can post a video about
anything, and pretty much anyone can watch it. While most of us see this as
one of the characteristics of YouTube that make it so valuable, there are some
people out there who see this as a threat, specifically those in power who have
a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and limiting the discussions
going on that question the current order of things.
As a result of this, YouTube is often one of the first
sites oppressive governments will try to shut down in an attempt to stymie
political dissent. China is one of the leaders of this movement, and they have
also taken steps to block Facebook and Google. However, Germany, which is typically
regarded as a liberal country that emphasizes personal freedoms, has been caught banning content, although a lot
of this content was blocked because it incited hate, often sympathetic to
Nazis, or because it broke copyright laws. But still, this is surprising.
To make things more interesting, Saudi Arabia, which
blocks access to almost all social media sites, controls the content published
on TV and still has laws in place that can make it difficult for women to leave the
house without their husband's permission, allows unlimited access to
YouTube, which is part of the reason why Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that
uses YouTube the most.
It certainly is a strange world we live in.
7. More
People Watch YouTube Than Cable
Over the past ten to twenty years, the price of cable has increased at a rate that far exceeds
the rate of inflation, making it disproportionately expensive for
most people. In response, a movement has begun known as "cord-cutting" in which
people drop cable in favor of online streaming.
There is some debate as to whether or not this is cheaper - there are now multiple streaming services, all of which charge you, on top of
the rising cost of high-speed internet - but it certainly helps disgruntled
cable customers, of which there are many, feel good to say adios to the
cable companies after so many years of being raked over the coals.
Nowadays, cord-cutting is on the rise, and YouTube is
playing a role in this. YouTube has a considerably larger reach than cable,
which is not good news for the telecommunications companies. Only time will
tell if this trend will mean the end of cable TV as we know it.
8. There
are 57,000 Years Worth of Content on YouTube
So, you've decided you want to make a splash on social
media by sitting down and watching all the content published on YouTube. You'll
post about it, blog about it, and contact the Guinness Book of World Records to
generate some publicity.
Not so fast.
To do this, you would need to live at least 57,000
years, and that's assuming no one uploads a single video between now and
when you finish watching, which isn't likely.
This essentially means if you sat down now to watch all
the content out there, and somehow managed to secure your immortality, you
would likely never manage to finish watching all the content that's out
there.
We all knew there was a lot of content, but how many of us
knew there was that much?
9. 20
Percent of Videos Are Switched Off Within 10 Seconds
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about how our
smartphones and other connected devices are shortening our attention spans, and
typical activity on YouTube seems to back this up. Overall, we turn off just
around one-quarter of all videos we watch on YouTube before they reach the
ten-second mark.
There are a lot of reasons for this. For example, you may
have clicked the wrong link but a lot of it has to do with first impressions.
If we're not impressed right away, or we think the video we've chosen to play
isn't going to be good, we click off it without giving it a second thought.
10. 45
Percent of People Use YouTube on a Daily Basis
According to a study by Pew, of the people who use YouTube, nearly half
of them log on to watch a video at least once per day. And another third log on
at least once a week. This type of usage stacks up with that of other popular
social media sites, but people generally use Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat
more regularly, with between 60 and 75 percent of people using it every day.
11. We
Watch About 5 billion Videos Per Day
This number is just astronomical. The entire world's
population is only about 7 billion people. This means almost everyone on the
planet old enough to use the internet is watching at least one YouTube video
per day.
Of course, this isn't actually what's happening. Instead,
it's more likely users are watching multiple videos in a day. But the fact that
so many videos get watched each and every day shows just how deeply ingrained
YouTube is in our digital lives.
12. YouTube
Generates More than $13 billion Per Year in Ad Revenue
It has been a few years since YouTube first introduced
advertising, and while it's pretty annoying for us as users, these ads are what
keep the company going, allowing it to exists and continue as a platform where
people can upload and share their homemade video content.
In total, YouTube generates more than $11 billion in net advertising
revenue. Gross numbers are much larger.
One of the reasons it can earn so much cash for its parent
company Alphabet is because YouTube, by its very nature, knows a lot about you.
It keeps track of all the videos you watch, the subscriptions you keep, and the
content you share, and then it displays ads that are highly relevant to you.
This increases the likelihood you click on an
advertisement, which the company who paid for it hopes leads to a sale or
sign-up or whatever they're looking for.
Think this doesn't work? Think again. YouTube's ad revenue has been growing year over year, and there's really no end in sight:
13. YouTube
is Valued at More than $150 Billion
Because YouTube does not exist as an independent entity
due to its association with Alphabet, it's difficult to get an accurate
number on the company's market valuation. However, judging by the revenue it
brings in as well as its massive following, it's safe to say YouTube is a
pretty valuable company.
Most estimates suggest that YouTube, if it were to stand
alone, would be worth between $130 and $180 billion.
To give you an idea, that would still make it one of the
world's most valuable brands. This just goes to show you how powerful Alphabet
is; it controls both YouTube and Google.
14. YouTube Has Around 2 Billion Monthly
Active Users
If we expand our parameters a bit and discuss the amount
of traffic heading to YouTube every month, we find there are around 2 billion
monthly active users. This is up considerably from when the site first launched as would be expected - mainly because of the site's popularity around the
world. Take a look at how things have grown over the years:
Looking at this, you might be thinking things are slowing
down for YouTube. And while in one sense they are, what we're really seeing is
market saturation. At the moment, there are only about 4 billion people in the world with
access to the internet. Half of them use YouTube.
It's impossible to know when YouTube will stop attracting
visitors, but with large swaths of the world's population still awaiting
reliable internet access - primarily in the ever-expanding Asian and African
markets - we can expect YouTube to continue to grow.
To think it can actually be bigger than it is already is a
slightly terrifying thought. But it's also exciting to see how much more room
this platform still has to grow.
Conclusion
So, the next time you go to watch a video on YouTube, know
that you're not just making use of a convenient platform that makes it easy to
upload, share, and watch videos created by regular people just like us from all
around the world.
Instead, be aware of the fact that you are engaging with a
website that has infiltrated the deepest parts of our society and changed it
forever. Know that you are accessing a platform that started as a dating
website and quickly grew to become one of the most popular and most-visited
pages that exist on the web.
In short, when you watch a video on YouTube, know that you
are participating in a truly global movement that is certain to keep changing
the world more than it already has.
