YouTube
More info
- Creator
- Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim
- Released
- Owner
- Type
- Video platform
- Website
- youtube.com
- Wikipedia
- en.wikipedia.org
The world's largest video platform — Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim (2005), bought by Google in 2006 for USD 1.65 billion. Today ~2.5 billion monthly users.
Technically: HLS/DASH adaptive streaming, VP9/AV1 encoding, billions of Bigtable rows. "YouTube Shorts" (2020) is the TikTok response. The 2012 algorithm pivot from clicks → watch time shaped the entire "YouTube content" aesthetic (clickbait, longer videos).
Generates income for a million+ creators globally via the Partner Program. Criticism: the recommender, content ID copyright disputes, AdSense de-platforming, demonetisation. Home to longer technical tutorials, vlogs, music, livestreaming, and the next generations' TV consumption.