4 minute read
THINKING OF
from The Focus- Issue 2
M . GUPTA
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Who are some of the most famous people on the internet in our generation? Are they politicians or Hollywood celebrities? No, they’re people who make
their career on one of the biggest social media platforms in the world – YouTube. Pewdiepie. Mr Beast. theodd1sout. These are the names that we know
today. With millions of subscribers and viewers, they can earn millions a year. According to Forbes, in 2019 alone, Pewdiepie earnt around £15million, and his net worth is estimated to be around £30 million. So where did it all start? In 2005 former PayPal employees Steve Chan, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim founded YouTube. The domain name, "YouTube.com", was activated on the 14th of February, 2005, with video upload options integrated on the 23 rd of April 2005. The first YouTube video, titled ‘Me at the Zoo’, was uploaded and showed cofounder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The trio used their money from eBay’s buyout of PayPal to fund the site’s early development. From the summer of 2006, YouTube began to be one of the world’s fastest growing websites, and by July the site had an average of 100 million views a day. Google purchased YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock on the 13 th of November, 2006, making it Google's second-largest acquisition. Susan Wojcicki from Google, became CEO of YouTube in 2014. An American technology executive, Wojcicki was involved in the founding of Google and became its first Marketing Manager in 1999. She followed the success of YouTube and proposed the acquisition to Google. Today, Wojcicki has an estimated net worth of nearly $500 million. From the new ownership, YouTube continued to grow and in 2019 YouTube had made $15.1 billion in ad revenue. According to wall street analysts, the brand is valued at more than $100 billion. So why has YouTube become such a hit?
YouTube is a free streaming service. Anyone can access content and watch/upload videos. At the time of its creation, YouTube was the only such portal of its kind, and remains to be the most popular and successful. YouTube also poses a great global influence through
media. Videos posted have made the world burst into laughter, create uproar and trends. YouTube has also been a way for people to kickstart their careers. Music sensations such as Charlie Puth, Shawn Mendes and Ed Sheeran started their musical careers by using YouTube. Its no cost structure facilitates new talent. YouTube is also a great way to express yourself. There are infinite possibilities in the world of YouTube, and content creators have the opportunity to express themselves through their videos. It promotes free speech, as individuals have the right to speak out on the platform.
President Obama used
YouTube as part of his 2012 re-election campaign, and it is used widely for political purposes. People can promote their causes, such as the #TeamTrees movement, where popular youtubers promoted donations to the cause. This proved to be very successful as over $20million has been raised. This is an excellent example of YouTube’s power
to positively influence the masses. It has re-energised the educational system. Huge amounts of free content is available, ranging from how to learn a language and to life/business coaching. One of the most well-known educational channels is TED. It has been used in both classrooms and boardrooms across the globe. On top of this, most people use YouTube to learn new skills or ‘how to’ complete a specific task. YouTube has everything from “How to build a Laptop” to makeup tutorials. YouTube provides a great solution to most issues. YouTube is a powerful business tool and is a great way to promote your brand. It is a cheap and easy marketing solution for getting your content out to potential customers, and is used by start-ups to multimillion-dollar companies. However, there is a dark side to this ‘machine’. Although YouTube manages the content on its servers, it is quite unregulated and anyone from the public can post on it. This, unfortunately, can lead to graphic and explicit content being posted online to all audiences. An example of this was the “Momo” post. Many of these shocking clips were posted onto YouTube Kids, revealing harmful content to young children. However, in recent years, YouTube has gotten better at managing content, putting numerous safety regulations in place to address these issues. Whether you are a fan or not, it is undeniable that YouTube is one of the most important global platform today. With millions of viewers worldwide, YouTube is the 2 nd most popular website in 2020, second only to Google after overtaking Facebook. It truly is a masterpiece of the 21st century.
