YouTube is a free global online video-sharing and social media platform founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim headquartered in San Bruno, California. The trio were early employees of PayPal, which left them enriched after the company was bought by eBay. It is owned by Google and is the second most visited website, after Google Search. It has more than 2.5 billion monthly users, who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day.
In October 2006, YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65 billion. Google’s ownership of YouTube expanded the site’s business model, expanding from generating revenue from advertisements alone to offering paid content such as movies and exclusive content produced by YouTube. It also offers YouTube Premium, a paid subscription option for watching content without ads. YouTube also approved creators to participate in Google’s AdSense program, which seeks to generate more revenue for both parties. YouTube reported revenue of $29.2 billion in 2022.
YouTube has expanded beyond the core website into mobile apps, network television, and the ability to link with other platforms. Video categories on YouTube include music videos, video clips, news, short films, feature films, songs, documentaries, movie trailers, teasers, live streams, vlogs, and more. Most content is generated by individuals, including collaborations between YouTubers and corporate sponsors. YouTube has had an unprecedented social impact, influencing popular culture, and internet trends, and creating multimillionaire celebrities. However, YouTube has been widely criticized for facilitating the spread of misinformation, copyright issues, routine violations of its users’ privacy, enabling censorship, their guidelines and how they are implemented, and endangering child safety and wellbeing.
YouTube Quick Information:
Type of business | Subsidiary |
Type of site | Online video platform |
Founded | February 14, 2005; 18 years ago |
Headquarters | 901 Cherry Avenue San Bruno, California, United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Owner | Google LLC |
Founder(s) | Chad Hurley Steve Chen Jawed Karim |
Key people | Neal Mohan (CEO) Matt Halprin (vice president) Chad Hurley (advisor) |
Industry | Internet Video hosting service |
Products | YouTube Kids YouTube Music YouTube Premium YouTube Shorts YouTube TV |
Revenue Increase | US$28.8 billion (2021) |
Parent | Google LLC (2006–present) |
Advertising | Google AdSense |
Registration | Optional |
Users | 2.562 billion MAU (January 2022) |
Launched | February 14, 2005; 18 years ago |
Current status | Active |
Content license | Uploader holds copyright (standard license); Creative Commons can be selected. |
Written in | Python (core/API), C (through CPython), C++, Java (through Guice platform), Go, JavaScript (UI) |
URL | www.youtube.com |