- YouTube users can listen to music using specialized YouTube music service, rent feature films or access the YouTube originals by subscribing to YouTube Premium. YouTube being the world’s biggest content platforms is prime ad real estate.
- YouTube achieved this state and has managed to retain it, through the range of innovative features to serve creators and users alike. Live Stream, Ratings by Viewer, Easy-to-use embed functionality, below-the-line comments, content algorithms, and voice recognition rank among those which have helped it retain its edge.
Launched in 2005, Youtube was founded by three former PayPal employees- Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley who operated the company from a small office above a small restaurant in a small Californian city.
From such a humble start, YouTube has become one of the largest apps in the digital world and the home to videos which are so prevalent in today’s media landscape.
The first video on the platform was uploaded by Jawed Karim and it was named “Me at The Zoo”. Now he has a lot of company around as 500 hours of content is uploaded every day on the platform.
YouTube became big soon as at the end of 2005, the serial investors Sequoia Capital invested $3.5 million, followed by another $8 million alongside Artis Capital Management in early 2006. Apart from venture capital, Google came knocking and $1.65 billion in stock later, YouTube is a Google (now Alphabet) property.

Source- YouTube
Time included YouTube on the Person of the Year cover the same year. The person in question was ‘you’- importantly the content creators.
YouTube achieved this state and has managed to retain it, through the range of innovative features to serve creators and users alike. Live Stream, Ratings by Viewer, Easy-to-use embed functionality, below-the-line comments, content algorithms, and voice recognition rank among those which have helped it retain its edge.
YouTube channels gave rise and fame to many of the famous stars, PewDiePie is the best known and most controversial among them. Brands utilize the platform for marketing, media outlets to host video output, labels and musicians to release music, it even played a part in hosting debates during the US presidential elections.
Here are some of the interesting YouTube Statistics:
- YouTube is most-downloaded iOS app in 2018.
- YouTube is installed on 5 billion Android devices.
- YouTube content is viewed one billion hours per day.
- 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute.
- 250 million hours of YouTube viewed per day on TV screens.
- YouTube is accessible in 80 different languages and localized in 91 different countries.
- Most viewed video on YouTube is “Despacito” with more than 6 billion views.
- Psy’s “Gangnam Style” was the first video to cross 1 billion views while Nike ad featuring footballer Ronaldinho was the first one to cross 1 million views.
- 4,505 gaming streamers per day on average (in January 2019)
- 8 million users of YouTube Kids, registering 30 billion views
- 64% of YouTube users report coming across false/untrue content
- YouTube ads command an attention rate of 62% (television registers 45%)
- YouTube revenue for 2018 is estimated at between $9.5 billion and $14 billion
- 2018 US YouTube ad revenue estimated at $3.36-$4.43 billion
- Estimated YouTube valuation is $140-$160 billion
YouTube Users Statistics
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki revealed that YouTube currently counts 2 billion active users which would represent a 5 percent increase in the 1.9 billion logged-in users reported in July 2018. In June 2017 they had 1.5 billion YouTube users which means they have raised 0.4 billion users in one year.
World’s total number of internet users stands at 4.4 billion which means YouTube users account of 45 percent of the world’s entire online population.
If we consider YouTube as a social network- given its user-generated content and its numerous opportunities for communication/connection- it is the world’s second-largest as per the data and statistics of Hootsuite Digital 2019 report. Only Facebook commands more active users.
The growth of YouTube is a testimony of how the world’s online activity and the population is growing. This is gonna increase further which more cutting edge internet technology.