YouTube Celebrates Five Years on Web
With the sheer number of videos we all consume on the Internet, it seems hard to remember a time when YouTube wasn't around or wasn't synonymous with Internet video. And yet, it was only five years ago that YouTube was born … er, launched.
While five years is eons in Internet time, it's still impressive that YouTube has become the go-to site for video and one of the most visited sites on the Internet, period, in that amount of time. The company blog reports the site is now averaging 2 billion views per day.
A celebratory post on the company blog described the site's impact on society best:
"What started as a site for bedroom vloggers and viral videos has evolved into a global platform that supports HD and 3D, broadcasts entire sports seasons live to 200+ countries. We bring feature films from Hollywood studios and independent filmmakers to far-flung audiences. Activists document social unrest seeking to transform societies, and leading civic and political figures stream interviews to the world."
In order to celebrate its success over the last five years, YouTube has put together a series of videos chronicling some of the biggest YouTube phenomenons to hit the internet. It's called the "My YouTube Story" project, and it's actually a pretty quick lesson in the history of video memes, which is no surprise because YouTube has been ground zero for nearly every single one of them.
YouTube isn't just reminiscing about the past though; the company is also looking to the future. According to the company blog, the average user spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube, but many people are averaging five hours of TV viewing daily. YouTube wants to get a larger cut of that viewing time, indicating it will focus more on professional video such as movies and TV shows in the future.
