YouTube is an American online video and social media platform headquartered in San bruno, California. Created by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim on February 14, 2005. This is owned by Google and is the second most visited website after Google itself. YouTube has more than 1 billion monthly users and watches over 1 billion hours of video every day. As of May 2019, videos were being uploaded at a content rate of over 500 hours per minute.
In October 2006, 18 months after the first video was posted and 10 months after its official launch, YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion. Google's ownership of YouTube has expanded the site's business model from generating revenue solely from advertising to providing paid content such as movies and exclusive YouTube-produced content. It also offers YouTube Premium, a paid subscription option to watch ad-free content. YouTube and Creators are approved to participate in Google's AdSense program, which is intended to generate additional revenue for both parties. YouTube's reported revenue for 2020 is $19.8 billion.
Since its acquisition by Google, YouTube has expanded beyond its main website to include mobile apps, network television, and connectivity to other platforms. The YouTube video category includes music videos, music videos, news, short films, feature films, documentaries, sound recordings, movie trailers, trailers, live streams, vlogs, and more. Most of the content is created by individuals, including in collaboration between YouTube users and corporate sponsors. Established media companies such as Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery also created and expanded their company's YouTube channels to advertise to a wider audience.
YouTube has had an unprecedented social impact, influencing popular culture, internet trends and creating multi-millionaire celebrities. Despite its growth and success, YouTube is still heavily criticized. Criticisms against YouTube include the site being used to facilitate the spread of misinformation, copyright issues, widespread violations of user privacy, censorship, and endangerment. for the safety and well-being of children.
After opening the beta service in May 2005, YouTube.com handled about 30,000 viewers per day in just a few months. After launching six months later, they will receive more than two million daily visitors on the site. As of March 2006, the site had over 25 million videos uploaded and generated around 20,000 downloads per day. During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest growing sites on the World Wide Web, hosting over 65,000 new video uploads. The site averaged 100 million video views per day in July. However, this is not without, with rapid user growth forcing YouTube to keep up with the pace of technology. They need new equipment and a larger broadband Internet connection to serve a growing audience. Growing piracy issues and YouTube's lack of marketing eventually led to an outsourcing to Google, which subsequently failed in its own "Google Video" video platform. It ranks as the fifth most popular website on Alexa, even outpacing the growth rate of MySpace. The site has an average of nearly 20 million unique monthly visitors according to Nielsen/NetRatings, with about
men and 56% men. The 12 to 17 age group predominates. YouTube's dominant position in the online market is remarkable. According to website Hitwise.com, YouTube holds up to 6
% of the online video market in the UK.
YouTube signed a marketing and advertising partnership with NBC in June 2006.
