YouTubethe most famous and used video sharing platform in the world, performs 20 years. The February 14, 2005 The domain was in fact recorded Youyube.com from three former PayPal employees: Steve Chen, Chad Hurley And Jawed Karim. A few months later, the April 23, 2005the latter will load the first video of the platform, a short movie entitled Me at the zooin which, in front of a cage of elephants, he explained a curious detail on their trunk. Karim probably did not imagine that he was in some way by writing a page of the web history. From that moment, YouTube He experienced exponential growth, becoming the global reference point for video sharing. Within a year, the platform has attracted millions of users and has aroused the interest of Googlewho acquired it in theOctober 2006 For 1.65 billion dollars.
Today YouTube is the most popular streaming service in the world, overcoming even “traditional” television in many metrics. Every day they come uploaded over 500 hours of content per minutewhile short videos, the Shortstota more than 70 billion daily views. But how has the platform changed in these 20 years? In addition to the dizzying growth of the number of users and content, YouTube has transformed the concept of online entertainment and information, giving life to the Creator Economya sector that today It is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. It has revolutionized the way the music is listened to and contributed to the birth of some of the most influential personalities on the web. And while video consumption moves more and more towards connected television, YouTube continues to innovate with new features and investments in the field artificial intelligence to maintain his leader’s role in the panorama of online entertainment.
YouTube, from the first video in the San Diego Zoo to the acquisition by Google
When youtube founders launched the platform, the initial idea was not to create a video sharing service, but a dating site. You got it right! The project provided that users could Upload short videos to present yourselfbut the idea was not successful. The three then decided to focus on a more open platform, in which anyone could upload and share videos of any type.
The success was immediate: within a month YouTube already recorded 30,000 visitors per dayand six months later the number had risen to two million. Explosive growth attracted the attention of Google, that the 10 October 2006 he decided to acquire the company for a figure that at the time seemed astronomical: 1.65 billion dollars. The investment soon proved to be a really spot on a deal. With the support of Google, YouTube has refined its business model, introducing monetization for Creators, improving the tools for advertisers and developing increasingly advanced features.
And to think that everything started from the first innocent video uploaded to the platform, Me at the zoowhich at the time of drafting this article has accumulated more than 348 million views. We propose it below again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnqxac9ivrw
YouTube and the birth of the Creator Economy
One of the most revolutionary aspects of YouTube It was the way anyone allowed anyone to transform their passion into a profitable activity. The introduction of the partner program In the 2008 gave the creators to content the opportunity to earn through advertising, laying the foundations of what we call today Creator Economy.
Today, millions of people in the world live thanks to their content on YouTube. CEO Neal Mohan has declared that only in the last three years YouTube distributed $ 70 billion in Creator, artists and companies in the sector. Some of the most influential YouTubers, such as Pewdiepie And Mrbeastthey have become real celebrities, with millions of members and earnings that rival those of Hollywood stars.
The platform also deeply influenced other sectors: it anticipated the boom of video streaming, opening the way for services such as Netflix, and has revolutionized the music industry, becoming one of the main channels for the discovery of new artists.
The evolution of the consumption of videos on YouTube
In recent years, the way users watch YouTube has changed radically. If in the past the use was dominated by smartphones and computers, today more and more people watch videos directly on TV. According to Google, users spend on average 36 minutes a day on YouTubeof which 17 in front of the TV.
The importance of connected TV is one of the main future challenges of the platform. YouTube is testing new features like Look withwhich will allow creators to comment on live events.
YouTube between artificial intelligence and new formats
Artificial intelligence plays an increasingly central role in the development of YouTube. The platform introduced AI -based tools to facilitate content creation, such as Dream Screen To generate dynamic backgrounds in videos e Dream track to produce customized audio tracks. In addition, AI technology will be used more and more to offer multiple channels the Automatic dubbing in different languages.
Also the Shortsthe short videos introduced in 2020 As a response to Tiktok, they had a significant impact. With beyond 70 billion views per daythese contents are redefining the way people consume video, offering an immediate and viral form of entertainment.
Curiosity and YouTube record
Over the course of these 20 years, YouTube has accumulated a series of Record and curiosity. We propose some of them.
- The country with multiple YouTube users is theIndia (476 million), followed by United States (238 million) and from Brazil (147 million). In Italythe platform has about 41 million users.
- The first YouTube channel to reach 1 billion views It was that of Adele with the video of Hellowhich reached this record just over 100 days after its publication.
- Baby Shark Dancea video game for children is the YouTube videos most watched ever. When we wrote this article had passed the abundantly 15.6 billion views!
- Approximately 31.51 billion dollars These are the global YouTube advertising revenues recorded in alone 2024.
