YouTube Statistics: US-based video-sharing website, YouTube, LLC, was founded by former PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in February 2005. Google LLC. bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 Bn, and currently, YouTube operates as a subsidiary of Google LLC.
YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others worldwide, and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers. The company’s categories include YouTube original channels, automotive, beauty, comedy, dance, entertainment, family-oriented, film, and animation, finance, food, gaming, Hispanic, health, home and garden, how-to, music, news, pets and animals, science and technology, sports, travel, urban, and women’s interests. Users can upload, view, share, rate, report, add to favorites, comment on videos, and subscribe to content uploaded or shared by other users. Content available on YouTube includes movies, video clips, TV show clips, music videos, documentary films, audio/video recordings, movie trailers, live streams, and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos to name a few.
The content available on YouTube is mostly uploaded by individuals, but some media corporations such as CBS, the BBC, Vevo, and Hulu offer content through YouTube as part of a partnership. In addition, only registered users are able to upload an unlimited number of videos on the site, while unregistered users can only watch videos.
Best of YouTube
Music: The channel was automatically generated by YouTube’s video discovery system and offers top tracks and popular hits from a variety of genres
Sports: This includes all forms of competitive physical activity, sports, or games, media, and content related to maintaining or improving physical ability and skills
News: YouTube’s news destination provides comprehensive up-to-date coverage on the latest top stories regarding sports, business, entertainment, politics, and more
Live: YouTube Live enables access to live streams such as live gaming, live music, live sports, live news, and Google Hangouts
360: Official VR channel of YouTube, and can access the latest and best VR-ready videos on the platform
Gaming, Movies, TV Shows, Spotlight, etc.
YouTube Premium was formerly known as YouTube Red. This channel includes features across YouTube and a new YouTube Music app, as well as provides access to all YouTube Originals series and movies.
YouTube:
- Ad-free videos: Users can watch millions of videos without any interruption by ads
- Download videos to watch offline: Users can save videos and playlists on mobile devices and play or watch later in offline mode.
- Play in the background: The feature allows video to continue to play while other apps are being used or when the mobile screen is on sleep mode
YouTube’s Music:
- YouTube Music app improves the world of music along with new and innovative apps
- Ad-free music: Listen to music without ads
- Download music to listen offline: Save music and playlists in the YouTube Music app and listen offline
- Play in the background: Keeps playing music while using other apps or when the mobile screen is off
YouTube Originals:
- Original movies and series as per user’s choice
YouTube Kids:
- Offers Ad-free and offline play in the YouTube Kids app
YouTube’s Gaming:
- Ad-free, offline, and background play in the YouTube Gaming app
Google Play Music:
- Included at no additional cost
Background History of the Company:
2005: In February, the domain name – www.youtube.com – was activated, and the first video was uploaded in April 2005
2006: In July 2006, the site grew rapidly and the company announced that over 65,000 new videos were being uploaded each day, and the site was receiving around 100 Million video views per day
2006: In October 2006, Google Inc. acquired YouTube for US$ 1.65 Billion in Google stocks
2009: In early 2009, YouTube registered the domain www.youtube-nocookie.com for videos embedded on US federal government websites. In November of the same year, YouTube launched a version of ‘Shows’, which was available to UK viewers, and provided access to around 4,000 full-length shows from over 60 partners.
2010: In January 2010, the company introduced an online film rental service, which is currently available only to users in the US, Canada, and the UK. Users have access to over 6,000 films through this service.
In March 2010, YouTube started free streaming of certain content, including 60 cricket matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL), and this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event.
2011: In November 2011, the Google+ social networking site was integrated directly with YouTube and Chrome web browser, which allowed YouTube videos to be viewed from within the Google+ interface.
In December 2011, the company launched a new version of the site interface, with the video channels displayed in a central column on the home page, similar to news feeds of social networking sites. The new version of the YouTube logo was also introduced with a darker shade of red, which was the first change in design since October 2006.
2012: In October 2012, YouTube for the first time offered a live stream of the US presidential debate and partnered with ABC News.
In December 2012, YouTube relaunched its design and layout similar to the mobile and tablet app versions of the site
In addition, Gangnam Style became the first YouTube video to surpass one billion views in 2012
2013: A shooting took place at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno on April 3, in which three persons were injured, and a fourth person had died
In December 2015 and January 2016, direct uploading through email and webcam recording respectively were removed. The former existed to support cell phones with limited web browsing capabilities.
In January 2019, the company removed the AutoShare feature. The feature allowed users to opt to automatically broadcast actions such as liking videos, playlist additions, new uploads, and earlier added subscriptions to Google Plus and Twitter, and the channel feed.
In November 2019, YouTube has announced that the service would phase out the classic version of YouTube Studio to all YouTube creators by the spring of 2020. It was available and accessible to some YouTube creators by the end of March 2020.
Since December 2019, users are no longer able to share the automatically generated playlist of positively rated videos.
YouTube Ad Revenue in Billion 2017–2020
YouTube Features:
- Share Video by Non-Member: Non-members can also share videos by clicking on the share video link. Once a user clicks on the link, a box appears under the video where the user can write e-mail addresses and a short description or message. Then, the user needs to click on send a message and sends an e-mail to a list of contacts with a link to the video.
- Video Toolbox: This section is where users can learn tips and tricks for video production. Several videos are available to users regarding lighting, video editing, camera angles, sound production, and special effects, and viewers do not have to be a YouTube member to view content here.
- TestTube: YouTube’s new applications for beta testing before rolling them out to the entire site. Some of TestTube’s applications include:
- Active sharing: Shows other YouTubers what a user is watching
- AudioSwap: The application allows a user to change the audio on the video being viewed. This application was created to allow members to remove audio that was under copyright, and replace it with officially licensed music.
- Remixer: A program designed by Adobe Premiere Express that allows a user to edit videos, including all transitions and effects which are already loaded into YouTube.
- Streams: This act as a chat room, where multiple people can watch and comment on the same videos simultaneously.
- Search: At the time of uploading any video, a YouTuber fills out fields for the title, description, and tags in order to include key search terms.
Recent News 2019
- On 22 February 2019, YouTube stopped serving Ads to several popular channels that promote anti-vax videos. This move is believed to have been made after complaints came in from large advertisers who did not want their content playing alongside videos promoting anti-vaccine views.
How to connect to a YouTube channel owner?
- Click on a YouTube username
- It will take you to the main page of the user’s channel
- Users can use YouTube’s on-site messaging system to contact the channel owner as long as the user is logged into a Google account
- Click on the ‘About’ tab, select ‘Send Message’, and fill in the electronic form
Most-subscribed channels on YouTube in 2020:
- Smosh
- Judson Laipply
- Brokers
- Geriatric1927
- Lonelygirl15
- Nigahiga
- FRED
- Ray (formerly Ray William Johnson)
- PewDiePie
- YouTube (formerly YouTube Spotlight)
- T-Series
Youtube Statistics: Fun Facts
YouTube’s Demographics
- Around 85% of YouTube users are outside the US
- Around 55% of YouTube users are male in 2020
- Around 45% of YouTube users are female in 2020
- In the US, individuals between the age of 18–34 years old watch Youtube on mobile, reaching more of this US audience than any TV network
- Globally, 9% of small businesses are on YouTube
- The 35+ and 55+ age groups are the fastest-growing groups of YouTube viewers
- Around 75% of adults turn to YouTube for nostalgia rather than tutorials or to view current events across the globe
- Millennials prefer YouTube over traditional television
- YouTube offers services in 91 countries in 80 languages
- Male viewers primarily watch soccer or strategy games, and female viewers watch beauty videos
- Gangnam Style was a popular video that exceeded YouTube’s view limit, prompting the site to upgrade its counter
- YouTube predicted that 50% of viewers under 32 will not subscribe to paid TV by 2025
- When they played their first prank, they turned the website upside down and Rick Rolled everyone
- The most popular topic that is searched for is, of course, music!
- Based on a 2013 study, 60% of the 1,000 most viewed YouTube videos are banned in Germany.
- Every day, over 150 years of YouTube are watched on Facebook.
- In 2011, 30% of all the videos on YouTube account for over 99% of views.
YouTube Usage Statistics
- The first YouTube video uploaded titled ‘Me at the zoo’ shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo
- YouTube is the 2nd most popular social media platform
- 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
- One billion hours watched daily
- YouTube is available in over 100 countries and 80 languages
- 70% of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
- In 2020, more than 31 million YouTube channels are using YouTube to share videos. Every month more than 2 billion monthly unique users come to YouTube to be entertained, inspired, or educated.
As of Jan 2020, 93% of the most-watched videos were music videos. - Around 2 Billion users are active monthly on the YouTube site
Financial Stats:
- YouTube US ad revenue is projected to reach $5.47 billion in 2020
- From 2017 to 2019, YouTube generated more than $34 billion in ad revenue in three years.
- For Q2 2020, YouTube’s ad revenue was US$ 3.81 billion, up from US$ 3.60 billion in the year-ago period.
YouTube Business Statistics
- Around 1.9 Billion users are active monthly on the YouTube site
- Over 70% of YouTube watch time is done on mobile devices, making it approximately 500 Million mobile YouTube views per day
- YouTube launched local versions across more than 91 countries
- YouTube has navigated in around 80 different languages (covering 95% of the Internet population)
- The number of channels with more than one million subscribers grew by 75% per year
- Almost 9,000+ partners using Content ID, including many major network broadcasters, movie studios, and record labels
