Many argue that YouTube is one most time consuming sites ever invented on the Internet, though many Facebook users might disagree. In February of 2005, 3 former PayPal employees decided to start up a video sharing service and they uploaded the first video on April 23, 2005. Here we are 10 years later.
In 2006, many people were not sure it was going to survive due to all the copyright infringement lawsuits but then later that year (Nov 2006) Google acquired them for 1.65 Billion USD. This seemed like another ridiculous dot com valuation yet it definitely looks like a deal now.
Fascinating Stats (many from the YouTube press room)
- They have over 1 billion users
- Over 300 hours of video is uploaded every minute, that’s 5 hours every second!
- Several demographics have surprised any other cable network for reach
- There are over 6 billon hours watched every month
- Over 80% of their traffic now originates outside of North America
Most Viewed
YouTube is great for entertainment and education pieces. Many people are visual. If you want to learn anything, just look it up and watch a video. The most viewed genuine video is “Charlie bit my finger – again !” with over 800 million views. It was number 1 for many years until music videos started taking the top spots. Charlie is hovering around 6th place right now.
The current number 1 music video is “Psy – Gangnam Style” with over 2.3 BILLION views. Many contribute the enormous success because it tapped into the worldwide market and wasn’t focused purely on North America or English speaking audiences.
Entire “channels” have emerged with people turning this full time jobs. Channels such as Smosh, RayWilliamJohnson, vsauce, nigahiga, SkyDoesMinecraft, RhettAndLink, EpicMealTime, SoulPancake, TheSloMoGuys, and on goes the list.
YouTube Rewind
YouTube takes a look at the most watched videos / channels throughout the year and has been creating annual recap videos named as Rewind. They started this in 2010 and 2011 but then in 2012 they took Rewind to the next level with professionally produced videos that ended up as mash-ups including many YouTube celebrities and popular music.
YouTube Rewind 2014
YouTube Rewind 2013
YouTube Rewind 2012
Happy birthday to YT, haha. Pretty amazing that it’s only been 10 years and it’s become so big. Really makes you wonder what the world will be like in another decade.
I wonder what sort of devices we’ll be using to watch it on in 10 years time? I have a feeling we’ll be way beyond laptops and tablets at that point.
Of course. I think by then, we’d have mastered virtual reality and could potentially be seeing virtual reality vids on YT. CRAZY.
What virtual reality you’re talking about guys?! The future is all about Holographic lens! Microsoft’s already one step ahead!
What’s a Holographic lens?
Happy birthday YouTube. I think it’s great that it has been online for 10 years, I’m really thankful to YouTube because I’ve learnt a lot from YouTube and I hope to learn even more in the future. I’m also thankful for the opportunities they’ve given people in the past, I support YouTube!
Wow, a whole decade of YouTube! It seems like it’s only been around for a few years. It’s a fantastic resource and hopefully it will be around in another 10 years time.
I know, right? I just started using YouTube back in 2011 or 2012! It doesn’t feel old to me at all, to me it feels as if it was a relatively new site 🙂 Truth is I wasn’t aware of the existence of that web site until a few years ago. I’m so glad they made it and now a whole decade has passed 🙂 I’m sure they’ll continue rocking for many more years.
It’s hard to believe YouTube has been around for ten years. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday people were talking about this great new place to watch strange videos online. I personally don’t watch much, but that’s more a matter of circumstance than anything. I can easily see myself sitting for an entire day watching YouTube videos, haha. Happy birthday to YouTube.
Well, I must be a freak or something because I prefer the written word over viewing a video. That is not to say I try to avoid YouTube because I don’t, but it is not one of my top “go to” places for information. I just never got into that habit. When I need information I go to a search engine first.
Having said this, I have seen my share of YouTube videos; I just allow them to come to me rather than seeking them out.
It’s amazing how far they have gotten! Back in 2005 I wasn’t even aware they existed, now they are a total and complete staple in my life! I can’t imagine my life without this web site, I check it almost daily, always in search for new music. I now get all my music from there, by the way! I have a software that can download videos from YouTube and then convert them into MP3 files. I love it! I’d never be able to imagine my life without this!!! No way!!!!
This is what I do too – I don’t bother with any subscription services, YouTube has just about every track I ever want to listen to : )
Youtube has become the biggest video site on the Internet, and I don’t see it being overtaken any time in the next few years. While there has been relatively few bad changes made over the years, as compared to say Facebook, the future will be uncertain and I do hope things won’t change for the worse over the next decade.
Youtube is indeed the no. 1 video uploading site that we have now. They have billions of users and it continue to grow everyday. I personally uses youtube when I want to upload some video that I like to share with my friends. Most of the time I upload funny video’s and then I will share it on my facebook wall.
I’m really thankful that youtube exist. I know that this website is really useful for many people specially when they need some tutorials or a step by step guide on how to do something.
It’s quite amazing how much YouTube has evolved. I can’t wait for the next decade to come and see what YouTube has changed.
Wow. It doesn’t feel like 10 years. At least until you try to imagine or even remember life online before YouTube. It has amazing how it has evolved from it’s early garage days.
It’s mind boggling that YouTube has already aged to 10 years ago. Where did all that time go? I still miss old YouTube though. The YouTube that allows its newer users better chances of getting their work out there than struggling these days, while the higher ups all easily succeed. Also, I loved the old channel profiles so much better back then, because they allowed some creativity and distinction. As soon as it was bought by Google and social networks like Facebook and Twitter started getting off the ground, they made the site look too basic.
However, YouTube remains the biggest video-sharing site on the web for a reason and that’s because they are so highly commercialized, they’re linked with Google and of course there are so much great education and entertainment videos available for everyone to watch and indulge themselves in. There is literally nothing on there that you can’t find. It’s amazing how over 13.7% of the population has an account there. That’s a rough estimation considering some variables like multiple accounts, but nonetheless that’s very impressive.
Youtube is my main source of entertainment at the moment. So much content out there and I always have something to watch!
They’ve come a long way and they deserve all the recognition! Props to Google for believing in them, they now make a fortune out of it.
I do not follow anyone other than Rhett and Link on YouTube of the one mentioned above but I guess I am late to the party. I did not know that the people that started YouTube where from Paypal. But than again PayPal is a great service too. I think that I need to check out some of these other youtubers I love watching YouTube Rewind but i never know who anyone is.