YouTube is a video-sharing platform owned by Google. It allows users to upload, share, and view videos. YouTube was created in 2005 and has since grown to become one of the largest and most popular websites in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users.
YouTube is a free service, but it generates revenue through advertising and by allowing creators to monetize their content through the YouTube Partner Program. Creators can earn money through ads, sponsorships, and through YouTube’s Super Chat and Super Stickers features, which allow viewers to support their favorite creators by paying to have their messages highlighted or to use special stickers during live streams.
YouTube also offers a subscription service called YouTube Premium, which allows users to watch videos without ads and to access exclusive content.
YouTube has also been facing pressure from regulators regarding its content moderation policies, with many governments and organizations calling for stricter rules and oversight to address issues such as hate speech, misinformation, and child safety. The company has implemented several changes to its policies and enforcement processes to address these concerns, but criticism and calls for further action have continued.
Key figures for YouTube in 2020 worldwide
- 2 billion users use YouTube each month (MAU)
- Over 80,000 videos viewed in one second on YouTube
- Over 1 billion hours of videos viewed on YouTube by people around the world every day
- Several billion views per day
- Over 70% of YouTube videos are viewed on mobile
- 37% of global mobile traffic is on YouTube, ahead of Facebook (8.4%) and Snapchat (8.3%)
- Number of videos added to YouTube
720,000 hours of video are added to YouTube per day - 500 hours of video every minute
- 30,000 hours of video each hour
- It would take 82 years to view the number of videos added to YouTube in one hour.