Just about the only thing known about YouTube for sure is its immense popularity, with viewer numbers making it one of the most popular Web sites on the Internet. But everything else is open to interpretation, with assumptions having been turned into facts. YouTube decided enough was enough, and has tried to debunk some of those myths.
You may have heard of a little show called Mythbusters which focuses on debunking urban legends and fictions which have been accepted as fact over the years. YouTube recently decided to do a little of its own myth busting, and used the format of the show as the basis for debunking some of the “facts” used when we talk about YouTube, how it’s doing as a company, and where it’s headed in the future.
YouTube Mythbusters
Myth 1: YouTube is limited to short-form user-generated content.
YouTube was built on short-form user-generated content. This much is true. Otherwise we’d have never seen those cute pets doing crazy things, or people falling over in ever more obtuse ways. But Google has moved the site on from that somewhat, and although UGC is still the main thrust of YouTube, there is also a range of long-form, professionally made, or premium content available.
Myth 2: YouTube videos are grainy and of poor quality.
Again, this a myth that’s built on the early days of the site when, let’s face it, the quality of the videos on the site was quite poor. Video quality has been improving as the quality of the products used to shoot the video has improved. Then at the back end of 2008, YouTube unveiled its HD video offerings, and the quality hasn’t looked back since.
Myth 3: Traffic, growth, uploads are bad for YouTube’s bottom line.
This is one of the trickiest YouTube myths to prove or disprove because YouTube doesn’t reveal its balance sheets. There has been intense speculation over how much money the site will lose this year, but until YouTube decides to reveal all then no one knows for sure. YouTube is claiming that, at the very least, growth is good for the company rather than bad. Which means it’s still welcoming more uploaded video.
Myth 4: Advertisers are afraid of YouTube.
It’s long been assumed that advertisers are somewhat cautious about advertising on YouTube due to the random nature of which clips their ads could end up appearing on. But YouTube is quick to point out that 70 percent of Ad Age Top 100 marketers ran campaigns on the site during 2008. What’s more, YouTube is now actively developing tools designed to help advertisers have better control over where their ads appear on the site.
Myth 5: YouTube is only monetizing 3-5% of the site.
This is another huge myth that YouTube is keen to debunk. A figure of 4 percent has long been bandied about when describing how many of the videos on the site can actually be monetized due to copyright concerns etc. YouTube doesn’t refute the percentage claim, and doesn’t either discuss the true figure, but it claims to have tripled the number of monetized views in the past year, and to be generating revenue from more views than any other video site has total views. Which is impressive.
Conclusions
, and its owner Google, has for too long stayed silent and let these myths propagate around the Web and beyond. But while this session of myth busting is nice to see, the problem of misinformation still stem from the company’s unwillingness to reveal true figures. If it did so then these “facts” could be debunked easily.
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