History and Growth of YouTube
– YouTube was founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.
– The idea for YouTube came from the difficulty of sharing videos from a dinner party and the need for a video-sharing site after the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy.
– The original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service.
– YouTube officially launched on December 15, 2005, and quickly gained popularity.
– YouTube was founded by early PayPal employees Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.
– The idea for YouTube was developed after experiencing difficulty sharing videos from a dinner party.
– The inspiration for YouTube came from the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
– YouTube started as a venture capital-funded startup and raised money from various investors.
– In 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock.
– YouTube’s headquarters is located in San Bruno, California.
– During this era, YouTube experienced rapid growth, with thousands of new videos being uploaded daily.
– YouTube expanded beyond the core website into mobile apps, network television, and integration with other platforms.
– YouTube’s annual advertising revenue increased to $28.8 billion in 2021.
Impact and Controversies of YouTube
– YouTube has had a significant social impact, influencing popular culture and creating celebrities.
– However, it has been criticized for facilitating the spread of misinformation and violating users’ privacy.
– YouTube has faced criticism for enabling censorship and endangering child safety.
– The platform has been accused of inconsistent or incorrect implementation of platform guidelines.
– Despite controversies, YouTube remains the second most visited website in the world, with over 2.5 billion monthly users.
YouTube’s Evolution and Partnerships
– YouTube partnered with Vevo in December 2009.
– YouTube announced a subscription service called Music Key in 2014.
– YouTube partnered with Twitch to compete in the video gaming market in 2015.
– Susan Wojcicki became CEO of YouTube in February 2014.
– YouTube expanded its headquarters in San Bruno in January 2016.
– In August 2017, YouTube launched a polymer redesign of its user interfaces.
– YouTube introduced premium, subscription-based channels in 2013 and relaunched them in June 2018.
– YouTube launched YouTube Red, a premium service offering ad-free access and original content, in 2015.
YouTube’s Response to Increased Usage and Privacy Concerns
– During the COVID-19 pandemic, YouTube’s usage significantly increased.
– YouTube and Netflix reduced streaming quality to comply with EU requests for bandwidth reduction.
– YouTube was fined $170 million for collecting personal information from minors.
– YouTube treated all videos made for kids as liable under COPPA starting from January 2020.
– YouTube created a supervised mode for tweens and released YouTube Shorts to compete with TikTok.
YouTube’s Features and Video Technology
– YouTube uses video codecs such as VP9 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.
– The platform uses the Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP protocol.
– AV1 format was introduced in January 2019.
– YouTube considered requiring AV1 in streaming hardware to improve quality and decrease bandwidth.
– Video is streamed with Opus and AAC audio codecs.
– Adobe Flash Player was initially required to view YouTube videos on a computer.
– YouTube launched an experimental version using HTML5 in 2010.
– HTML5 became the default playback method in 2015.
– YouTube uses Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) for HTML5 video streams.
– Videos can be served at lower resolution levels for areas with limited internet speeds.
– Annotations, pop-up text messages, and hyperlinks were available from 2008 to 2017.
– YouTube originally offered videos at 320×240 resolution with mono MP3 audio.
– High-quality mode was added in 2008, increasing the resolution to 480×360.
– 720p HD support was added in 2008, followed by 1080p HD support in 2009.
– YouTube launched 4K videos in 2010, with a resolution of up to 4096×3072.
– Support for 8K resolution was added in 2015, with videos playing at 7680×4320.
– YouTube downgraded the quality of its videos.
– YouTube developed its own chip, called Argos, for encoding higher resolution videos.
– YouTube allows upgrading the quality of old videos in certain cases.
– YouTube partnered with Universal Music Group for remastering music videos.
– YouTube supported live streaming of events like the 2012 Olympics and Felix Baumgartner’s jump from space.
– YouTube comments have been criticized for their negative aspects.
– Comments on YouTube have been described as juvenile, aggressive, and misspelled.
– YouTube implemented a comment system requiring Google+ accounts, which received negative feedback.
– Google+ comment system allowed URLs in comments and faced criticism.
– YouTube later removed the requirement of a Google+ account for commenting.
– YouTube launched the Community feature, allowing users to post text, images, and live videos.
– Several creators were consulted for suggestions on Community features.
– TestTube is an area of YouTube for accessing experimental features.
– Comment search feature was implemented in TestTube but later removed.
– YouTube Feather was introduced in TestTube as a lightweight alternative for slow internet speeds.
– YouTube allows embedding videos on web pages using HTML code.
– Users can make video responses to other users’ videos.
– YouTube videos can be shared on social networking pages and blogs.
– The unique YouTube video identifier allows for a maximum of 64 characters.
– YouTube videos can be viewed on web pages outside of YouTube’s website.Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_video_(identifier)
