YouTube is an American online video sharing and social media platform. The headquarter is situated in San Bruno, California, United States. The website address is www.youtube.com. The online video platform was founded and launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. These 3 were the former employee of PayPal ( American multinational financial technology company ), PayPal was later bought by eBay. It has more than 2.5 billion ( 250 crores or 25000 lakhs ) monthly users. These 2.5.billion users watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. On an average 500 hours of video contents per minute are being uploaded in You Tube.
YouTube
In October 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. The revenue source is primarily advertising. Advertisers pay to have their ads displayed on You Tube videos and channels that reach their target audience. It also generates revenue through premium subscription services like You Tube Premium ( It also offers You Tube Premium, a paid subscription option for watching content without ads ) and You Tube TV, merchandise sales, fan funding, super chats, and e-commerce features such as the You Tube Shorts Fund and the Shopping feature. The revenue generated from these sources is shared with content creators who participate in the You Tube Partner Program.
Video categories 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. Established media corporations such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. Discovery have also created and expanded their corporate YouTube channels to advertise to a greater audience.
Though YouTube is available worldwide, but in some countries the use of this online video sharing platform is banned. In some countries it is completely blocked, either through a long-term standing ban or for more limited periods of time such as during periods of unrest, the run-up to an election, or in response to upcoming political anniversaries. In other countries, access to the website as a whole remains open, but access to specific videos is blocked due to many reasons including orders from country jurisdiction.
However, there are some countries that have decided to ban the video sharing platform for various reasons. Here’s a list of some countries that have banned the use of this video sharing platform.
- China – China has a strict internet censorship policy and has banned several websites, including YouTube. In order to access YouTube, people in China need to use a virtual private network (VPN).
- Iran – Iran has a history of censoring the internet and has blocked several websites, including YouTube. In order to access YouTube, people in Iran need to use a VPN.
- North Korea – North Korea is known for its strict internet censorship policy and has banned several websites, including YouTube. It is difficult for people in North Korea to access the internet at all, let alone YouTube.
- Turkmenistan – Turkmenistan has a strict internet censorship policy and has banned several websites, including YouTube. In order to access YouTube, people in Turkmenistan need to use a VPN.
- Syria – Syria has a history of censoring the internet and has blocked several websites, including YouTube. In order to access YouTube, people in Syria need to use a VPN.
YouTube has been led by a CEO since its founding in 2005, and has retained this leadership model even after its acquisition by Google. The current CEO is Neal Mohan, who was appointed on February 16, 2023.
List of CEOs
- Chad Hurley (2005–2010)
- Salar Kamangar (2010–2014)
- Susan Wojcicki (2014–2023)
- Neal Mohan (since February 2023)
YouTube CEO
Neal Mohan is an Indian-American business executive, who is the fourth and current CEO, succeeding Susan Wojcicki on February 16, 2023. Previously he was the Chief product officer of YouTube and SVP, Google. He is also in the Board of Directors of 23andMe and Stitch Fix.
YouTube CEO Salary
Former CEO Susan Wojcicki had a whopping salary while she was heading the video-sharing app. As per media reports, her monthly salary was around USD 374,829. The salary of Neal Mohan is expected to be on the same lines.
When converted into Indian rupees, it is expected that Neal Mohan will have a monthly salary of Rs 3.1 crore. Since this was the salary of the former CEO in 2022, it is expected that Mohan will get a pay hike and earn more than this.
As per media reports, New CEO of YouTube, Neal Mohan had received a massive USD 100 million bonus from Google previously to prevent him from switching to Twitter. It is estimated that Mohan’s total net worth is over USD 150 million, which is Rs 1,242 crores.
1st Video in YouTube
What is YouTube Premium
A YouTube Premium subscription allows users to watch videos without advertisements across the website and its mobile apps, including the dedicated YouTube Music and YouTube Kids apps and services. Through the apps, users can also save videos to their device for offline viewing, play their audio in the background, and in picture-in-picture mode on Android Oreo and newer. YouTube Premium also offers original content that is exclusive to subscribers, which is created and published by YouTube’s largest creators
YouTube Premium costs $13.99 per month after a price hike in July 2023. Currently, it costs £11.99 / CAD $11.99 / AU $14.99 rates in the UK, Canada and Australia, however, these rates could also change alongside the U.S. prices. Annual pricing provides a discount, though it too got a price hike. The U.S. pricing is $119.99 a year, while Canadian pricing remains CAD $119.99 for now.
If your whole family loves YouTube, you can sign up for the YouTube Premium family plan to share access across the household. In the U.S. this costs $22.99 per month, and it lets you add up to five other users (for six total) to your YouTube Premium account.
Family plans are available internationally, at £19.99 / CAD $22.99 / AUD $22.99 per month.
There are requirements, though, to be in a YouTube Premium Family plan. YouTube says Family members need to “Live at the same residential address as the family manager,” (the person running the account). This is much like how the Netflix password-sharing crackdown works. Members cannot be part of another family group, or have switched family groups in the last 12 months.
As long as you can verify you’re a college student, you can get YouTube Premium for $7.99 per month. It’s also available internationally, at £6.99 / CAD $6.99 / AUD $8.99 per month.
Most Unknown Facts About YouTube
It was launched on Valentine’s Day. The domain was activated on February 14th, 2005, but the video upload feature wasn’t added until April 23 of that year. Jawed Karim, a co-founder, posted the first video a little over two months later.
Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, the three YouTube founders, all worked for PayPal. They funded the site’s early development with money they received from eBay’s purchase of PayPal.
It was originally a dating site. Next on the list of interesting facts about YouTube, is something quite shocking and strange. YouTube did not start out with the same concept as it does now. According to rumours, YouTube began as a video dating site called “Tune In Hook Up,” which was modeled after the popular Hot or Not show at the time. But fate had other plans, and the three founders decided against going that route.
It has a total 2.6 Bn users as of April 2022
YouTube has opened a free production space in Los Angeles, but only for those with at least 10,000 subscribers. Even those with a single subscriber can participate in classes on how to grow their channel, as well as attend comedy nights, mixers, and musical performances.
It is banned in China, Iran, North Korea, South Sudan and Turkmenistan as of May 2022. You Tube’s mission to reach every household on the planet hasn’t always been smooth sailing. More than 25 countries have blocked access at various times. Germany, Finland, and Brazil are among the usual suspects, as well as some surprises. Many videos featuring copyrighted songs were unavailable in Germany due to royalties disputes between GEMA and YouTube.
YouTube Vs Utube : “Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment,” a manufacturer of pipes and tubing products used the domain utube.com since 1996. However, it was visited by thousands of people everyday looking for You Tube and hence its servers couldn’t handle the traffic. It had filed a lawsuit against You Tube in November 2006 for trademark infringement asking You Tube to change its domain name, however, the lawsuit was dismissed in the court. However, both the companies reached an agreement later – utube.com is now owned by You tube and the URL redirects to the You Tube home page while ‘Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment’ changed it’s domain name to utubeonline.com
If you don’t like ads interfering with your favorite music and videos, you can subscribe to YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience across the video platform, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals.
Baby Shark – a children’s animated video song became the first video to reach 10 Bn views in January 2022. It was released by Pinkfong 2016 – a South Korean entertainment company.
It became the most-viewed video in November 2020 and still holds the record. As of Aug’2023 it reached approx 13Billion views.
Avril Lavigne was the first artist to reach 100 million views. The smash-hit by Avril Lavigne After its release in 2008, Girlfriend became the first song to reach 100 million views. As of Aug’2023, it reached approx 633 Million views.
Gangnam Style Was First to 1 Billion Views. Do you recall “Gangnam Style”? You do, of course. In 2012, the infectious song and accompanying ludicrously fun music video – which popularised the invisible-horse dance – were unavoidable (and at pretty much every wedding or celebratory event with a dance floor thereafter). Psy’s “Gangnam Style was uploaded on July 15, 2012 became the first music video to reach one billion views on December 21, 2012.
‘YouTube Rewind 2018’ was the most disliked video of all time with around 19 Mn dislikes before the ‘dislike’ counter was disabled recently. For a long time, the Justin Bieber song Baby was the most disliked video . In the nine years, it had been online, it had received over 10 million “thumbs down.” However, YouTube Rewind 2018 smashed the record in spectacular fashion in December 2018. It received an incredible 19 million downvotes before the dislike counter was discontinued.
The maximum upload limit for a YouTube video 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
When the online video sharing platform first launched, there were no restrictions on the length of videos that could be uploaded. However, in 2006, the site implemented a 10-minute time limit to address issues with copyright infringement. By default, the current upload time limit is up to 15 minutes. Verified accounts can upload videos longer than 15 minutes. However, the maximum upload limit for videos is 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
The most popular brand channel is LEGO. LEGO has 14.3 million subscribers and nearly 17 billion views on its videos as of 2022.
T-Series, Indian film production company & record label continues to have the most subscribers as of Aug 2023. (247 million subscribers)
Felix Kjellberg is the YouTuber with the most subscribers. The next one on our list of interesting facts is about PewDiePie. PewDiePie is the name of his YouTube channel, which you may be familiar with. Until T-Series dethroned him on March 27, 2019, his channel reigned supreme for six years in a row. Despite this, he continues to be the most subscribed person on YouTube.
“Charlie bit my finger!” is one of the most iconic videos of all time. It was the most viewed video from October 2009 to the end of 2011. The video’s profits were sufficient to allow the family to purchase a new home. British Newspaper, The Mirror reported that the video had made around £1 million ($1.3 million) in royalties and ads as of 2017.
With 2 Billion users worldwide, this online video sharing platform is the second-most-visited website. Google.com is the most visited website of the world.
YouTube Kids
YouTube Kids is an app specifically designed for kids, makes it easier for children and parents to find content they are interested in. The child-friendly video sharing app is free to download for Android and iOS.
The app will feature popular local children’s brands like Morph, Teletubbies, Wallace & Gromit, and The Magic Roundabout. While the video sharing platform haven’t indicated a specific age range for the app, it does appear to be suitable mainly for children aged 3-8 years old.
Parents should be aware the app does feature advertisements. The video sharing app has insisted that the advertisements selected for the site go through a review process to ensure they are age appropriate.
However, if you or your child come across any inappropriate content you can flag it in the same was you would on the original YouTube app
Parental setup is required to ensure the best experience possible for your child. The app doesn’t require a sign-in or Google account. Once the app is downloaded, It will ask parents/adults to insert a code to ensure you are an adult, it will then check what settings you would like to use.
These settings include restricting your child’s experience by turning search off. This means your child can’t search for content, which reduces the chances that they will encounter a video you don’t want them to watch.
Another option offered for parents is the timer function. Parents can limit screen time by telling kids when it’s time to stop watching. The timer will display a friendly alert and stop the app when the session is over.
YouTube Kids has made a series of improvements, making it a safer experience for young children. Parents can now choose collections of programmes created by YouTube Kids and trusted third party partners. It has also made improvements to the ‘search-off’ feature in order to offer a more contained experience. It is also working on a parent-approved content option that will allow parents to select every channel and video available in the app later in the year.
Chances are that you know and use this online video platform on a daily basis. However, a lot of the content is far from kid-friendly, and oftentimes it can be difficult to control what the little ones see. Fortunately, the introduction of YouTube Kids has given parents and caregivers a little peace of mind.