YouTube is now officially five-years-old, with the site having launched in beta in May 2005. YouTube is celebrating this fact, naturally, and the fact that it is now serving two billion video views a day. Which is an incredible achievement.
YouTube Turns Five
YouTube is now five-years-old. Officially. We here at WebTVWire already celebrated this once back in February, which is actually when the YouTube domain was first registered by co-founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. But the launch didn’t occur for a further three months.
Much has happened to YouTube since then, as can be seen in the above video which takes us through the most momentous moments in the site’s history.
In October 2006 it was bought by Google for an incredible $1.65 billion. With the acquisition came a need and concerted effort to clean up the site, and the Content ID method is proving mostly effective in this aim.
The Google acquisition also brought with it a need to start generating serious profit. And while that hasn’t yet come to fruition, increased advertising efforts mean the site is on its way to being profitable.
Two Billion Video Views A Day
In October 2009 YouTube announced it was serving one billion video views a day. And now, in the space of just seven months, it has doubled this, now boasting an incredible two billion video views a day.
This, according to YouTube, is “nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined.” Sure, YouTube’s figures are worldwide rather than just the U.S., but it’s an impressive comparison to be able to make nonetheless.
YouTube Five Year Channel
To commemorate its fifth birthday, YouTube has launched a new channel celebrating its community. Famous and not-so-famous faces have uploaded videos telling the story of how YouTube has influenced and affected their lives. And we’re all invited to join in and do the same.
Guest curators such as Katie Couric, Vint Cerf, and Conan O’Brien have also chosen the most essential videos on YouTube. And with such a wide variety of guests, the variety of videos covers a wide variety of subject matters as well.
Conclusions
I can’t quite believe YouTube is five, but it’s already a ubiquitous part of the Internet. And two billion video views is an incredible statistic to commemorate with. YouTube may not yet be taking over the world, but it is becoming an integral part of its fabric.
