YouTube
Screenshot of YouTube's front page on August 29, | |
| Type of business | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Video hosting service | |
| Founded | February&#;14, ; 15&#;years ago&#;() |
| Headquarters | Cherry Avenue San Bruno, California, |
| Area&#;served | Worldwide (excluding blocked countries) |
| Founder(s) | |
| Key&#;people | Susan Wojcicki (CEO) |
| Industry | |
| Products | YouTube Premium YouTube Music YouTube TV YouTube Kids |
| Revenue | US$15 billion ()[1] |
| Parent | Google LLC (–present) |
| URL | www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar (see list of localized domain names) |
| Advertising | Google AdSense |
| Registration |
|
| Launched | February&#;14, ; 15&#;years ago&#;() |
| Current&#;status | Active |
| Uploader holds copyright (standard license); Creative Commons can be selected. | |
| Written&#;in | Python (core/API),[2]C (through CPython), C++, Java (through Guice platform),[3][4]Go,[5]JavaScript (UI) |
YouTube is an American online video-sharingplatform headquartered in San Bruno, California. Three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—created the service in February Google bought the site in November for US$&#;billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries.
YouTube allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to playlists, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users. It offers a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos. Available content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, short and documentary films, audio recordings, movie trailers, live streams, and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.
Most of the content on YouTube is uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, and Hulu offer some of their material via YouTube as part of the YouTube partnership program. Unregistered users can watch, but not upload, videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos and add comments to videos. Age-restricted videos are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old.
YouTube and selected creators earn advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program that targets ads according to site content and audience. The vast majority of its videos are free to view, but there are exceptions, including subscription-based premium channels, film rentals, as well as YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, subscription services respectively offering premium and ad-free music streaming, and ad-free access to all content, including exclusive content commissioned from notable personalities.
As of February&#;[update], there were more than hours of content uploaded to YouTube each minute, and one billion hours of content being watched on YouTube every day. As of October&#;[update], YouTube is the second-most popular website in the world, behind Google, according to Alexa Internet.[6]As of May&#;[update], more than hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute.[7] Based on reported quarterly advertising revenue, YouTube is estimated to have US$15 billion in annual revenues.
YouTube has faced criticism over aspects of its operations, including its handling of copyrighted content contained within uploaded videos,[8] its recommendation algorithms perpetuating videos that promote conspiracy theories and falsehoods,[9] hosting videos ostensibly targeting children but containing violent or sexually suggestive content involving popular characters,[10] videos of minors attracting pedophilic activities in their comment sections,[11] and fluctuating policies on the types of content that is eligible to be monetized with advertising.[8]
History
Founding and initial growth (–)
YouTube was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal.[12] Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[13]
Karim said the inspiration for YouTube first came from Janet Jackson's role in Super Bowl incident when her breast was exposed during her performance, and later from the Indian Ocean tsunami. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, which led to the idea of a video sharing site.[14] Hurley and Chen said that the original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service, and had been influenced by the website Hot or Not.[15][16] They created posts on Craigslist asking attractive females to upload videos of themselves to YouTube in exchange for a $ reward.[17] Difficulty in finding enough dating videos led to a change of plans, with the site's founders deciding to accept uploads of any type of video.[18]
According to a story that has often been repeated in the media, Hurley and Chen developed the idea for YouTube during the early months of , after they had experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen's apartment in San Francisco. Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, but Chen commented that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible".[15]
YouTube began as a venture capital–funded technology startup, primarily from an $&#;million investment by Sequoia Capital and an $8&#;million investment from Artis Capital Management between November and April [19][20] YouTube's early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California.[21] The domain name was activated on February 14, , and the website was developed over the subsequent months.[22] The first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo.[23] The video was uploaded on April 23, , and can still be viewed on the site.[24] YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May The first video to reach one million views was a Nike advertisement featuring Ronaldinho in November [25][26] Following a $&#;million investment from Sequoia Capital in November, the site launched officially on December 15, , by which time the site was receiving 8&#;million views a day.[27][28]
At the time of the official launch, YouTube did not have much market recognition. It was not the first video-sharing site on the Internet, as Vimeo was launched in November , though that site remained a side project of its developers from CollegeHumor at the time and did not grow much either.[29] The week of YouTube's launch, NBC-Universal's Saturday Night Live ran a skit "Lazy Sunday" by The Lonely Island. Besides helping to bolster ratings and long-term viewership for Saturday Night Live, "Lazy Sunday"'s status as an early viral video helped established YouTube as an important website.[30] Unofficial uploads of the skit to YouTube drew in more than five million collective views by February before they were removed at request of NBC-Universal about two months later, raising questions of copyright related to viral content.[31] Despite eventually being taken down, these duplicate uploads of the skit helped popularize YouTube's reach and led to the upload of further third-party content.[32][33] The site grew rapidly and, in July , the company announced that more than 65, new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving &#;million video views per day.[34]
The choice of the name led to problems for a similarly named website, . The site's owner, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November after being regularly overloaded by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to .[35][36]
Acquisition by Google (–)
On October 9, , Google announced that it had acquired YouTube for $&#;billion in Google stock.[37][38] The deal was finalized on November 13, [39][40] Google's acquisition launched new newfound interest in video-sharing sites; IAC, which now owned Vimeo after acquiring CollegeHumor, used its asset to develop a competing site to YouTube, focusing on supporting the content creator to distinguish itself from YouTube.[29]
In March , YouTube began free streaming of certain content, including 60 cricket matches of the Indian Premier League. According to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event.[41] On March 31, , the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface and increasing the time users spend on the site.[42] In May , YouTube videos were watched more than two billion times per day.[43][44][45] This increased to three billion in May ,[46][47][48] and four billion in January [49][50] In February , one billion hours of YouTube were watched every day.[51][52][53]
According to data published by market research company comScore, YouTube is the dominant provider of online video in the United States, with a market share of around 43% and more than 14&#;billion views of videos in May [54]
In October , Hurley announced that he would be stepping down as chief executive officer of YouTube to take an advisory role, and that Salar Kamangar would take over as head of the company.[55] In April , James Zern, a YouTube software engineer, revealed that 30% of videos accounted for 99% of views on the site.[56] In November , the Google+ social networking site was integrated directly with YouTube and the Chrome web browser, allowing YouTube videos to be viewed from within the Google+ interface.[57]
In May , 48 hours of new videos were uploaded to the site every minute,[49] which increased to 60 hours every minute in January ,[49] hours every minute in May ,[58][59] hours every minute in November ,[60] and hours every minute in February [61] As of January , the site had &#;million unique users a month.[62] It has been claimed, by The Daily Telegraph in , that in , YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in [63] According to third-party web analytics providers, Alexa and SimilarWeb, YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world, as of December [update]; SimilarWeb also lists YouTube as the top TV and video website globally, attracting more than 15&#;billion visitors per month.[6][64][65] In October , YouTube moved to a new office in San Bruno, California.[66]
In December , YouTube launched a new version of the site interface, with the video channels displayed in a central column on the home page, similar to the news feeds of social networking sites.[67] At the same time, a new version of the YouTube logo was introduced with a darker shade of red, the first change in design since October [68]
In early March , YouTube finalized the transition for all channels to the previously[when?] optional "One Channel Layout," which removed many customization options and custom background images for consistency, and split up the channel information to different tabs (Home/Feed, Videos Playlists, Discussion, About) rather than one unified page.[69]
New revenue streams (–ongoing)
In May , YouTube launched a pilot program for content providers to offer premium, subscription-based channels within the platform.[70][71] In February , Susan Wojcicki was appointed CEO of YouTube.[72] In November , YouTube announced a subscription service known as "Music Key," which bundled ad-free streaming of music content on YouTube with the existing Google Play Music service.[73]
In February , YouTube released a secondary mobile app known as YouTube Kids. The app is designed to provide an experience optimized for children. It features a simplified user interface, curated selections of channels featuring age-appropriate content, and parental control features.[74] Later on August 26, , YouTube launched YouTube Gaming—a video gaming-oriented vertical and app for videos and live streaming, intended to compete with the www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar-owned Twitch.[75]
In October , YouTube announced YouTube Red (now YouTube Premium), a new premium service that would offer ad-free access to all content on the platform (succeeding the Music Key service released the previous year), premium original series, and films produced by YouTube personalities, as well as background playback of content on mobile devices. YouTube also released YouTube Music, a third app oriented towards streaming and discovering the music content hosted on the YouTube platform.[76][77][78]
In January , YouTube expanded its headquarters in San Bruno by purchasing an office park for $&#;million. The complex has 51, square metres (, square feet) of space and can house up to 2, employees.[79]
On August 29, , YouTube officially launched the "polymer" redesign of its user interfaces based on Material Design language as its default, as well a redesigned logo that is built around the service's play button emblem.[80]
On April 3, , a shooting took place at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, California.[81]
On May 17, , YouTube announced the re-branding of YouTube Red as YouTube Premium (accompanied by a major expansion of the service into Canada and 13 European markets), as well as the upcoming launch of a separate YouTube Music subscription.[82]
In September , YouTube began to phase out the separate YouTube Gaming website and app and introduced a new Gaming portal within the main service. YouTube staff argued that the separate platform was causing confusion and that the integration would allow the features developed for the service (including game-based portals and enhanced discoverability of gaming-related videos and live streaming) to reach a broader audience through the main YouTube website.[83]
In July , It was announced that YouTube will discontinue support for Nintendo 3DS systems on September 3, However, owners of New Nintendo 3DS, or New Nintendo 3DS XL, can still access YouTube on the Internet browser.[84]
In November , it was announced that YouTube was gradually phasing out the classic version of its Creator Studio across all users by the spring of [85] As of August , the classic studio is no longer available.[86]
During the COVID pandemic, when most of the world was under stay-at-home orders, usage of services such as YouTube grew greatly. In response to EU officials requesting that such services reduce bandwidth as to make sure medical entities had sufficient bandwidth to share information, YouTube along with Netflix stated they would reduce streaming quality for at least thirty days as to cut bandwidth use of their services by 25% to comply with the EU's request.[87] YouTube later announced that they will continue with this move worldwide, "We continue to work closely with governments and network operators around the globe to do our part to minimize stress on the system during this unprecedented situation".[88]
In June , the ability to use categories was phased out.[citation needed]
Features
Video technology
YouTube primarily uses the VP9 and H/MPEG-4 AVC video formats, and the Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP protocol.[89] By January , YouTube had begun rolling out videos in AV1 format.[90]
Playback
Previously, viewing YouTube videos on a personal computer required the Adobe Flash Player plug-in to be installed in the browser.[91] In January , YouTube launched an experimental version of the site that used the built-in multimedia capabilities of web browsers supporting the HTML5 standard.[92] This allowed videos to be viewed without requiring Adobe Flash Player or any other plug-in to be installed.[93][94] The YouTube site had a page that allowed supported browsers to opt into the HTML5 trial. Only browsers that supported HTML5 Video using the MP4 (with H video) or WebM (with VP8 video) formats could play the videos, and not all videos on the site were available.[95][96]
On January 27, , YouTube announced that HTML5 would be the default playback method on supported browsers. YouTube used to employ Adobe Dynamic Streaming for Flash,[97] but with the switch to HTML5 video now streams video using Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), an adaptive bit-rate HTTP-based streaming solution optimizing the bitrate and quality for the available network.[98]
Uploading
All YouTube users can upload videos up to 15 minutes each in duration. Users can verify their account, normally through a mobile phone, to gain the ability to upload videos up to 12 hours in length, as well as produce live streams.[99][] When YouTube was launched in , it was possible to upload longer videos, but a ten-minute limit was introduced in March after YouTube found that the majority of videos exceeding this length were unauthorized uploads of television shows and films.[] The minute limit was increased to 15 minutes in July [] In the past, it was possible to upload videos longer than 12 hours. Videos can be at most GB in size.[99] Video captions are made using speech recognition technology when uploaded. Such captioning is usually not perfectly accurate, so YouTube provides several options for manually entering the captions for greater accuracy.[] YouTube formerly offered a 'Community Captions' feature, where viewers could write and submit captions for public display upon approval by the video uploader, but this was deprecated on September 28, (Captions that have already been added using the feature will be retained.)[]
YouTube accepts nearly all consumer video and audio encodings, including but not limited to MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H AVC, H HEVC, VC-1, VP8, VP9, and AV1 for video and MP3, linear PCM, AAC, FLAC, Vorbis, Opus, and Dolby Digital (also known as AC-3) for audio. Nearly any container format can be used, including but not limited to MP4, Matroska, FLV, AVI, WebM, 3GP, MPEG-PS, and the QuickTime File Format. Some intermediate video formats (i.e., primarily used for professional video editing, not for final delivery or storage) are also accepted, such as ProRes.[] YouTube does stipulate a "recommended" upload format to maximize the quality of the transcoded video that will be shown to viewers; as of late this is H AVC video and AAC audio in an MP4 container.[]
Videos with progressive scanning or interlaced scanning can be uploaded, but for the best video quality, YouTube suggests interlaced videos be deinterlaced before uploading. All the video formats on YouTube use progressive scanning.[] YouTube's statistics shows that interlaced videos are still being uploaded to YouTube, and there is no sign of that dwindling. YouTube attributes this to uploading of made-for-TV content.[]
Quality and formats
YouTube originally offered videos at only one quality level, displayed at a resolution of × pixels using the Sorenson Spark codec (a variant of H),[][] with mono MP3 audio.[] In June , YouTube added an option to watch videos in 3GP format on mobile phones.[] In March , a high-quality mode was added, which increased the resolution to × pixels.[] In December , pHD support was added. At the time of the p launch, the YouTube player was changed from a aspect ratio to a widescreen[] With this new feature, YouTube began a switchover to H/MPEG-4 AVC as its default video compression format. In November , p HD support was added. In July , YouTube announced that it had launched a range of videos in 4K format, which allows a resolution of up to × pixels.[][] In March , support for 4K resolution was added, with the videos playing at × pixels. In June , support for 8K resolution was added, with the videos playing at × pixels.[] In November , support for HDR video was added which can be encoded with Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) or Perceptual Quantizer (PQ).[] HDR video can be encoded with the Rec. color space.[]
In June , YouTube began to deploy support for high frame rate videos up to 60 frames per second (as opposed to 30 before), becoming available for user uploads in October. YouTube stated that this would enhance "motion-intensive" videos, such as video game footage.[][][][]
YouTube videos are available in a range of quality levels. The former names of standard quality (SQ), high quality (HQ), and high definition (HD) have been replaced by numerical values representing the vertical resolution of the video. The default video stream is encoded in the VP9 format with stereo Opus audio; if VP9/WebM is not supported in the browser/device or the browser's user agent reports Windows XP, then H/MPEG-4 AVC video with stereo AAC audio is used instead.[]
picture quality cut
On March 18, , Thierry Breton, a European commissioner in charge of digital policy of the European Union urged streaming services including YouTube to limit their services. The request came as a result of the prevention of Europe's broadband networks from crashing as tens of millions of people started telecommuting, due to the COVID pandemic in Europe. According to the EU, the streaming platforms should consider offering only standard definition, rather than high-definition, programs and users should be responsible for their data consumption.[] On March 20, YouTube responded by temporarily downgrading the videos in standard definition across the EU including the traffic in the UK as well.[][]
Annotations
From to , users could add "annotations" to their videos—such as pop-up text messages and hyperlinks. These functions were notably used as the basis for interactive videos, which used hyperlinks to other videos to achieve branching elements. In March , it was announced that the annotations editor had been discontinued and the feature would be sunset because their use had fallen rapidly, users had found them to be an annoyance, and because they were incompatible with mobile versions of the service. Annotations were removed entirely from all videos on January 15, YouTube had introduced standardized widgets intended to replace annotations in a cross-platform manner, including "end screens" (a customizable array of thumbnails for specified videos displayed near the end of the video) and "cards", but they are not backwards compatible with existing annotations, while the removal of annotations will also break all interactive experiences which depended on them.[][][][]
Live streaming
YouTube carried out early experiments with live streaming, including a concert by U2 in , and a question-and-answer session with US President Barack Obama in February [] These tests had relied on technology from 3rd-party partners, but in September , YouTube began testing its own live streaming infrastructure.[] In April , YouTube announced the rollout of YouTube Live, with a portal page at the URL "www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar". The creation of live streams was initially limited to select partners.[] It was used for real-time broadcasting of events such as the Olympics in London.[] In October , more than 8&#;million people watched Felix Baumgartner's jump from the edge of space as a live stream on YouTube.[]
In May , creation of live streams was opened to verified users with at least 1, subscribers; in August of that year the number was reduced to subscribers,[] and in December the limit was removed.[] In February , live streaming was introduced to the official YouTube mobile app. Live streaming via mobile was initially restricted to users with at least 10, subscribers,[] but as of mid it has been reduced to subscribers.[] Live streams can be up to 4K resolution at 60 fps, and also support ° video.[] In February , a live streaming feature called Super Chat was introduced, which allows viewers to donate between $1 and $ to have their comment highlighted.[]
3D videos
In a video posted on July 21, ,[] YouTube software engineer Peter Bradshaw announced that YouTube users could now upload 3D videos. The videos can be viewed in several different ways, including the common anaglyph (cyan/red lens) method which utilizes glasses worn by the viewer to achieve the 3D effect.[][][] The YouTube Flash player can display stereoscopic content interleaved in rows, columns or a checkerboard pattern, side-by-side or anaglyph using a red/cyan, green/magenta or blue/yellow combination. In May , an HTML5 version of the YouTube player began supporting side-by-side 3D footage that is compatible with Nvidia 3D Vision.[] The feature set has since been reduced, and the 3D feature currently only supports red/cyan anaglyph with no side-by-side support.
degree videos
In January , Google announced that degree video would be natively supported on YouTube. On March 13, , YouTube enabled ° videos which can be viewed from Google Cardboard, a virtual reality system. YouTube can also be viewed from all other virtual reality headsets.[] Live streaming of ° video at up to 4K resolution is also supported.[]
In , YouTube began to promote an alternative stereoscopic video format known as VR, which is limited to a degree field of view but is promoted as being easier to produce than degree video and allowing more depth to be maintained by not subjecting the video to equirectangular projection.[]
User features
Community
On September 13, , YouTube launched a public beta of Community, a social media-based feature that allows users to post text, images (including GIFs), live videos and others in a separate "Community" tab on their channel.[] Prior to the release, several creators had been consulted to suggest tools Community could incorporate that they would find useful; these YouTubers included Vlogbrothers, AsapScience, Lilly Singh, The Game Theorists, Karmin, The Key of Awesome, The Kloons, Peter Hollens, Rosianna Halse Rojas, Sam Tsui, Threadbanger and Vsauce3.[]
After the feature has been officially released, the community post feature gets activated automatically for every channel that passes a specific threshold of subscriber counts or already has more subscribers. This threshold was lowered over time[when?], from subscribers to subscribers, to subscribers, which is the current threshold as of September []
Channels that the community tab becomes enabled for, get their channel discussions (the name before March “One channel layout” redesign finalization: “channel comments”) permanently erased, instead of co-existing or migrating.[]
Content accessibility
YouTube offers users the ability to view its videos on web pages outside their website. Each YouTube video is accompanied by a piece of HTML that can be used to embed it on any page on the Web.[] This functionality is often used to embed YouTube videos in social networking pages and blogs. Users wishing to post a video discussing, inspired by, or related to another user's video can make a "video response".
On August 27, , YouTube announced that it would remove video responses for being an underused feature.[] Embedding, rating, commenting and response posting can be disabled by the video owner.[] YouTube does not usually offer a download link for its videos, and intends for them to be viewed through its website interface.[] A small number of videos, can be downloaded as MP4 files.[] Numerous third-party web sites, applications and browser plug-ins allow users to download YouTube videos.[]
In February , YouTube announced a test service, allowing some partners to offer video downloads for free or for a fee paid through Google Checkout.[] In June , Google sent cease and desist letters threatening legal action against several websites offering online download and conversion of YouTube videos.[] In response, Zamzar removed the ability to download YouTube videos from its site.[] Users retain copyright of their own work under the default Standard YouTube License,[] but have the option to grant certain usage rights under any public copyright license they choose.
Since July , it has been possible to select a Creative Commons attribution license as the default, allowing other users to reuse and remix the material.[]
Platforms
Most modern smartphones are capable of accessing YouTube videos, either within an application or through an optimized website. YouTube Mobile was launched in June , using RTSP streaming for the video.[] Not all of YouTube's videos are available on the mobile version of the site.[]
Since June , YouTube's videos have been available for viewing on a range of Apple products. This required YouTube's content to be transcoded into Apple's preferred video standard, H, a process that took several months. YouTube videos can be viewed on devices including Apple TV, iPod Touch and the iPhone.[]
In July , the mobile version of the site was relaunched based on HTML5, avoiding the need to use Adobe Flash Player and optimized for use with touch screen controls.[] The mobile version is also available as an app for the Android platform.[][]
In September , YouTube launched its first app for the iPhone, following the decision to drop YouTube as one of the preloaded apps in the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 operating system.[] According to GlobalWebIndex, YouTube was used by 35% of smartphone users between April and June , making it the third-most used app.[]
A TiVo service update in July allowed the system to search and play YouTube videos.[]
In January , YouTube launched "YouTube for TV", a version of the website tailored for set-top boxes and other TV-based media devices with web browsers, initially allowing its videos to be viewed on the PlayStation 3 and Wiivideo game consoles.[][]
In June , YouTube XL was introduced, which has a simplified interface designed for viewing on a standard television screen.[] YouTube is also available as an app on Xbox Live.[]
On November 15, , Google launched an official app for the Wii, allowing users to watch YouTube videos from the Wii channel.[] An app was available for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, but was discontinued in August [] Videos can also be viewed on the Wii U Internet Browser using HTML5.[] Google made YouTube available on the Roku player on December 17, ,[] and, in October , the Sony PlayStation 4.[]
In November , YouTube launched as a downloadable app for the Nintendo Switch.[]
Localization
On June 19, , Google CEO Eric Schmidt appeared to Paris to launch the new localization system.[] The interface of the website is available with localized versions in countries, one territory (Hong Kong) and a worldwide version.[]
| Country | Language(s) | Launch date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| English, Spanish | February 15, [] | ||
| Portuguese | June 19, [] | ||
| French, Basque | June 19, [] | ||
| English, Irish | June 19, [] | ||
| Italian | June 19, [] | ||
| Japanese | June 19, [] | ||
| Dutch | June 19, [] | ||
| Polish | June 19, [] | ||
| Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Basque | June 19, [] | ||
| English | June 19, [] | ||
| Spanish | October 11, [] | ||
| Chinese, English | October 17, [] | ||
| Chinese | October 18, | ||
| English | October 22, [] | ||
| English | October 22, | ||
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