YouTube: More Than Just A Decade Of Cat Videos

As YouTube celebrated its tenth birthday yesterday it is easy to forget just what YouTube has brought to our lives. The website is not just about adorable cat videos. It is essentially one of the greatest communication tools available to the world today.
After three employees of PayPal left following Ebay’s acquisition of the company, they planned their own start-up.  After facing difficulties finding videos of the Super Bowl and the 2004 tsunami, they settled on a video sharing site. YouTube was launched in the US on February 14 2005, and was bought a year and a half later by Google for $1.65 billion. The first video to be uploaded, entitled “Me at the zoo,”  lasted for just 18 seconds. And while the video’s content was nothing special, it signified something important. This website wasn’t just about high quality professional videos, it was catering to anyone who had something to share. A decade later and the site has over a billion users, is available in 61 different languages and everyday, 300 days worth of footage is uploaded. Something the founders may never have intended in the beginning though, was the freedom and community that developed alongside the site.

In 2012, 8 million people watched Felix Baumgartner jump from space live on the website and today the highlights of that video has 38 million views. This sense of adventure whilst being of a much lower profile is reminiscent of the spirit and community felt about the Apollo 11 landing. With people from around the world being able to follow major events and share these experiences with others. With the videos that brought hope, there were many that also brought despair. For the first time in human history, people have been able to see the effects of disasters both natural and human through the eyes of those effected, from earthquakes, tsunamis and meteors to riots. Survivors of these disasters have been able to reach out to the world and share their pain.

Earlier this year the website arranged for three YouTube creators to interview Barack Obama, president of the United States of America. This interview covered topics submitted by their viewers, giving easier access to the important subject of politics to a generation, who in the words of Obama himself “get turned off by the traditional news shows or the traditional debates”. This ability to share political ideas and offer freedom of expression is one of the reasons the site won a Peabody award in 2009 as a place “that both embodies and promotes democracy”. Political, philosophical and religious ideas from the world over are now available for anyone to view. Creators of content for education have spread across this platform as well with seminars and lessons on just about any topic you could desire to learn about. Lessons side by side with practical demonstrations have made it simple for people to learn new skills and share skills of their own. Individuals have made entire companies based on the idea of teaching through YouTube, and with such accounts as the Khan academy having over 2 million subscribers, it clearly works. Even renowned institutions such as Harvard University offer free distance learning courses through edX with their classes being taught over YouTube.

For consumers, the site has become the perfect platform for demonstrating, reviewing and even taking apart products. A huge number of people will now turn to YouTube reviews before purchasing a product, with the site offering everything from unboxing and benchmarking to damage tests. This was possibly most noticed with the Iphone 6 and what became colloquially known as Bendgate, a search on the site for “Iphone 6 bend test” reveals the top video to have 65 million views, demonstrating just how many people will view these videos about a product they have interest in. Many people have developed successful businesses from the website as well. User PewDiePie who has 35 million subscribers, was last year reported to make up to $8.47 million a year from his channel. He predominantly reviews and plays video games. With plenty more making considerable amounts from their videos. Even record labels make use of advertising with some of them having in-depth strategies for increasing ad revenue from the website.

After all this is said and done, there is still plenty of content for casual viewing with millions of videos covering categories such as music, games, movies and TV shows. In fact all of the videos in the top thirty most watched are music videos.
What do you use YouTube for? Leave a comment below!

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source: xdadevelopers