YouTube has described itself as a platform where any of its users can upload content

for an audience of viewers. The audience for YouTube is definitely anywhere from
children to adults, as content is so varied on this mass media platform.
The Evolution of Youtube and Marketing in Youtube.

February 14, 2005: The Beginning

YouTube was created by PayPal employees as a video-sharing website where users could upload, share and view content
The Internet domain name " www.youtube.com " was activated on Monday, February 14, 2005 at 9:13 p.m.

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, when they worked for PayPal. Prior to working for
PayPal, Hurley studied design at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Chen and Karim studied computer science together
at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. YouTube's initial headquarters was above a pizzeria and Japanese
restaurant in San Mateo, California.

April 23, 2005: The First Video

The domain name "YouTube.com" was activated with video upload options being integrated on April 23, 2005. The first
YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego
Zoo.[7][8]
November 2005:
YouTube began as an angel-funded enterprise working from a makeshift office in a garage. In November 2005, venture
firm Sequoia Capital invested an initial $3.5 million.
April 2006:
Roelof Botha (a partner of the firm and former CFO of PayPal) joined the YouTube board of directors. In April 2006, Sequoia
and Artis Capital Management invested an additional $8 million in the company, which had experienced significant growth in
its first few months.
June 2006:
During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest growing sites on the World Wide Web,[11] hosting more than
65,000 new video uploads. The site delivered an average of 100 million video views per day in July. [12] It was ranked the fifth-
most-popular website on Alexa, far out-pacing even MySpace's rate of growth.[13] The website averaged nearly 20 million
visitors per month according to Nielsen/NetRatings, with around 44% female and 56% male visitors. The 12- to 17-year-old
age group was dominant.[14] YouTube's pre-eminence in the online market was substantial. According to the website
Hitwise.com, YouTube commanded up to 64% of the UK online video market. [15]
Finally YouTube entered into a marketing and advertising partnership with NBC in June 2006.
October - November, 2006:
On October 9 2006, It was announced that the company would be purchased by Google for US$1.65 billion in stock, which
was completed on November 13. At that time it was Google's second-largest acquisition. The agreement between Google
and YouTube came after YouTube presented three agreements with media companies in an attempt to avoid copyright-
infringement lawsuits. YouTube planned to continue operating independently, with its co-founders and 68 employees
working within Google.
May 2007:
YouTube launched its Partner Program to let people get paid for their viral
content. This was the first time YouTube made it possible for everyday people to
turn their hobbies into a business. (About a year later, the most successful users
were earning six-figure incomes from YouTube, The New York Times reported in
2008. Michael Buckley, for example, was able to quit his day job after he realized
his YouTube show, The What The Buck Show, earned him more money than the
salary from his job as an administrative assistant at a music promotion company.)
A baby named Charlie took the world by storm in May 2007, A 56-second viral
video of a toddler biting his brother's finger and then smiling is one of the most
watched YouTube clips ever. At the time of publication, the video has half a billion
views. (As of February 2012, the family behind the video had made more than
$150,000.)
July 2007:
YouTube teamed up with CNN to host the presidential debate for the 2008
election cycle
Seven out of the 16 presidential candidates announced their campaigns via YouTube. In July, YouTube and CNN hosted their
first presidential debate, featuring citizen-submitted video questions.
This was also the first time in presidential debate history where user-generated video drove the debate.

August 2007:
Google decided it was time to start making money and rolled out the first ads for
YouTube.
The first advertisements were semi-transparent banners that popped up on the lower 20% of
videos. The overlaid ads would appear about 10 to 15 seconds into the video. It was Google's first
response to questions about how the search giant would make money from its video site.

In January 2009, the 111th U.S. Congress hopped on the bandwagon and launched official
Congressional YouTube channels. Doing so has helped American citizens attain a level of access
to the government that was never before possible.
A month later, The Vatican launched its own YouTube channel.

April 2009:

Usher introduced the world to Justin Bieber via a video on YouTube

Usher also announced that Bieber signed a recording contract with Island Def Jam records.
Now, Justin Bieber's Baby is one of the most viewed videos on YouTube, with more than 820
million views.
That month, YouTube also won a Peabody Award for its achievements in electronic media.
YouTube became more mainstream in 2009
YouTube and Vivendi team up to launch new music video service Vevo in April
2009
This was YouTube's first move to fix its relationship with music companies, which had complained about piracy and unfair
licensing terms.
As part of YouTube and Vevo's agreement, Vevo is free to distribute its music videos on YouTube and YouTube is able to keep
showing music videos from big labels.
Now, YouTube is looking to make a $50 million investment in the company at a $500 million
valuation.

January 2010:
YouTube starts renting movies
YouTube's entrance into Netflix and Apple's turf marked the first time it became clear YouTube
was trying to be more than just an amateur video-sharing site.
It started with a few movies that did well at Sundance, and has since grown to offer movies from
companies including Paramount, Disney, NBC/Universal, Sony, and Warner Brothers.
October 2010:
Columnist Dan Savage used YouTube to launch the "It Gets Better" project

Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" campaign on YouTube to send
messages of hope to LGBTQ teenagers who felt bullied or ostracized because
of their sexuality.
The campaign ended up going viral, and even President Barack Obama
participated.

April 2011
YouTube started doing it live
In April 2011, YouTube officially entered the broadcast business with the launch of YouTube
Live. YouTube Live has allowed the site to stream everything from concerts to news coverage to
the royal wedding to the Olympics.
October 2011
YouTube got serious about original content
After purchasing Next New Networks, an original web video programming company, in March
2011, YouTube launched its first original channels.
Google paid more than $100 million to content creators to make videos exclusively for
YouTube, Peter Kafka of AllThingsD reported in October 2011.
Now, YouTube is acting even more like a traditional television network and only renewing shows
that do well. Some of the more popular channels include MondoMedia, Howcast, Jay Z's Life +
Times, and TheOnion.

During the 2011 Arab Spring, YouTube played an instrumental role in

disseminating messages of freedom and democracy
In the early stages, activists relied heavily on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to accelerate the movement.
With YouTube, protestors were able to upload and share videos featuring protest and political commentary. Many of
those videos ended up going viral, with thetop ones receiving nearly 5.5 million views each.

July 2012:
For the first time ever, people all over the world were able to watch a live-stream
of the Olympics
For the Summer Olympics, YouTube powered NBC's online video experience to let users watch
any event live. You could also access the footage from essentially any device, be that your
computer, mobile phone, or tablet.

August 2012
YouTube became the go-to place for the presidential election
YouTube launched a one-stop channel for live election coverage in August 2012 called the
YouTube Elections Hub.
In addition to streaming the live speeches from the Republican National Convention and
Democratic National Convention, it featured content from eight news entities: ABC News, Al
Jazeera English, BuzzFeed, Larry King, The New York Times, Phil DeFranco, Univision, and The
Wall Street Journal.
December 2012
In a little over 5 months, Gangnam Style hit 1 billion views
It's now the number one video on YouTube with more than 1.3 billion views.
2012 in general was also huge for YouTube, with people watching more than 4 billion hours worth of video every month.
Although the vast majority of YouTube content is free for the user, Google have been testing new monetisation models for the platform.
From Paid Content to YouTube Red, we can see Google positioning the platform to compete with other online video-streaming websites,
such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Although this is unlikely to drastically impact advertisers, it is interesting to observe how Google
have developed YouTube to accommodate current trends.

It would be ignorant to believe that YouTube has reached its peak. In 10 short years we have witnessed its growth from a one-
dimensional online video sharing platform, which delivered the occasional display banner, to market-leading advertising solution with
innovative TrueView and Display ad formats. Having grasped YouTube’s growth over the last decade, one would only assume that as
technology advances and online behaviour evolves that YouTube would, in-turn, do the same

YouTube, by far the most popular online video platform in the world, celebrates its
13th anniversary on February 14th this year. Boasting over a billion users around the
world – who collectively view a billion hours of videos on the site each day – YouTube
has become the internet’s go-to site for everything from cat videos and ‘vlog’
commentaries to news coverage and music videos. The Alphabet summary has evolved
from a simple video-sharing platform into a vast business with a plethora of verticals,
and while Google does not reveal financial data about YouTube, estimates in April
2013 pegged revenue figures at around $5 billion.

YouTube’s 13-year-journey has been, like most of its Silicon Valley contemporaries, a
roller coaster ride, peppered with acquisitions, design overhauls, and experiments in
both technology and content. Here are some of the key milestones that have helped
shape YouTube into the internet leviathan that it is today:

The launch: 2005

YouTube was launched in beta on February 14, 2005, by former PayPal employees
Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, and Steve Chen. The video-sharing platform was founded
after Jawed, inspired by the Asian Tsunami and Janet Jackson’s SuperBowl
performance, met with Chad and Steve, who were looking to create a video-based
online dating service. Jawed also posted the very first video – a 19-second clip of him at
the San Diego Zoo – on YouTube on April 23, 2005. Just five months later, a Nike
football advertisement featuring Ronaldinho became the first video to garner a million
views on the site. Following a $3.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital in November,
YouTube was subsequently launched to the public on December 15.

The Google acquisition: 2006

A year after its launch, YouTube had entered several partnerships with the likes of
broadcast television networks NBC and CBS, and music labels Sony BMG, Warner, and
Universal. By July 2006, mobile video uploads had been integrated into the site which
had passed 100 million video views per day. The fast-growing popularity of YouTube
resulted in Google acquiring the company for $1.65 billion in October 2006. Shortly
afterwards, it was declared the ‘Invention of the Year’ by Time magazine.

Commercialisation: 2007

Now consuming as much bandwidth as the entire internet did in 2000, YouTube
launched its first ‘Paid Partner’ programme with the site’s early users in May – netting,
to take one example, the family behind ‘Charlie bit my finger’ over $150,000. In June
2007, it ventured out of the US for the first time by launching its services in nine
countries. A month later, the platform took another step to mainstream popularity when
it teamed up with CNN to host the debates for the 2008 US Presidential election. In
August the same year, the first advertisements appeared on YouTube videos,
answering the long-asked question of how Google planned to monetise the site.

Legal troubles: 2007

In 2007, the platform was being widely used to watch sports highlights, music videos,
and TV shows. This resulted in the platform being served a $1 billion copyright
infringement lawsuit by Viacom, the owner of MTV and Nickelodeon. The case was
initially resolved in YouTube’s favour in 2010 and was eventually settled by the two
companies in 2014. This was soon followed by English football’s Premier League filing a
similar complaint.

Going mobile: 2007

YouTube’s mobile platform was launched in 2007, allowing smartphone users to access
its videos on an optimised mobile website. The mobile platform was relaunched based
on HTML5 in July 2010, eliminating the need to use Adobe Flash Player. A few months
later, the YouTube application made its debut on the Android market, while the iOS
version of the app was released only in September 2012 after Apple dropped it as a
pre-loaded app in its iOS 6 operating system.

Adoption and recognition: 2008-2009

In May 2008, with 13 hours of video being uploaded on YouTube every minute, Forbes
estimated the company’s annual revenue at around $200 million. The platform was
conferred with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 2008 for its role in
“promoting a free exchange of ideas...around the world.” A few months later, HD video
capabilities, the launch of official channels by Barack Obama, the US Congress, and the
Vatican, and a key partnership with Vevo to distribute music videos on the platform
helped the platform achieve one billion daily video views in October 2009.

Changes in management: 2010, 2014

Chad Hurley had acted as YouTube’s CEO since the company’s launch and retained
his role even after Google acquired it in 2006. But in October 2010 he announced that
he was stepping down as CEO to take an advisory role at the company. He was
succeeded by Salar Kamangar who was the 9th employee to join Google. Just two
years later, however, he was replaced as YouTube CEO by Susan Wojcicki –
another Google stalwart and then the senior vice president of Ads and Commerce – as
increasing revenues from the site became a key priority for Google.

The OC revolution: 2011

In 2011, YouTube announced that it would begin focussing on original content by
allowing select users to create independent ‘channels’ exclusively for their platform. An
acquisition of Next New Networks and a $100 million-plus pay-out to content creators
saw the inception of several channels like Howcast, The Onion, Jay-Z’s Life+Times, and
IGN. The internet behemoth also showcased the power of user-generated content when
it was used by activists in the Arab Springrevolutions to share the multinational protests
with the rest of the world. In 2017, the top content creators on YouTube earned a
combined total of $127 million according to Forbes.

Live streaming: 2011

Its initial experiments with live-streaming were with a U2 concert in 2009, a Q&A
session with Obama in 2010, and the Indian Premier League also in 2010. However,
these involved the use of third-party technology, and it wasn’t until April 2011 that the
company first rolled out its native ‘YouTube Live’ platform. Since then, the portal has
been used around the world to watch live coverage of everything including the
Olympics, US Presidential debates, the royal wedding, and Felix Baumgartner’s ‘jump
from the edge of space’.

Redesigns: 2011, 2017

The first major redesign of the video platform took place in 2011, a few months after
Google unveiled its social media platform Google+. The update saw YouTube feature a
more social media network-esque design replete with a ‘news feed’ featuring Google+
activity and a ‘channel feed’ for subscribed and recommended channels. The following
years saw minor updates until, in 2017, the company completely overhauled the
platform’s design, introducing a new logo and typeface along with improving the
functionality of both its mobile and desktop applications.

Branching out: 2014-2017

In the last four years, Google has launched a slew of YouTube products to broaden the
reach of the video-sharing platform. YouTube Red, a premium service that offers
subscribers ad-free streaming and access to exclusive content, was first announced in
November 2014 and re-launched in its current avatar in October 2015. In 2016, citing
the poor connectivity faced by its mobile users in India, YouTube announced
the YouTube Go app which uses limited bandwidth and allows offline storing, viewing
and sharing of videos. The company recently announced that the YouTube Go app will
soon be launched in 130 countries. To keep pace with the burgeoning technology of
Virtual Reality, Google also announced the launch of the YouTube VR application late
last year.

The India chapter: 2008

YouTube India, a localised version of the video platform that catered to Indian user
preferences, was launched in 2008 at a time when Indians accounted for only around 1
percent of YouTube’s total viewership. However, thanks to the smartphone revolution
and a boom in videos featuring regional languages, India has since become one of the
most pivotal markets for the company. This was demonstrated when the Google
subsidiary opened its first YouTube Space in India in 2015 (similar projects had already
been undertaken in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, etc.). Located in Mumbai’s film city,
the ‘Space’ offered Indian YouTubers the chance to “learn, connect, and collaborate” in
their efforts to create more engaging video content for the site.

The move contributed to YouTube’s surging popularity in the country. Estimatesfrom

last year show that YouTube has a 400-million-strong user base in India and that its
watch time on mobile devices alone grew by 400 percent year-on-year. With over 14
independent creators from India (including AIB, BB Ki Vines, Vidya Vox, and more)
crossing the 1 million subscribers mark in 2016, YouTube began increasing its efforts in
fostering its Indian community. The YouTube FanFest held in Mumbai in 2016 and 2017
brought together the most popular YouTube creators (from India and abroad) to create
unique live shows for the audience. The company also unveiled its first pop-up YouTube
Space in Hyderabad last year, has begun testing its YouTube Go app in the country,
and expects to double its Indian user base within 2-3 years.

It’s been a steep rise to the top for YouTube over the last 13 years. As technology
evolves and video consumption continues to increase by leaps and bounds, it’ll be
interesting to see how the platform retains its crown over the next 13.
The world's most popular video-viewing platform, sees 2 billion hits per day. Fortunately, the Google-owned company
has figured out a few ways to monetize all of those video views.