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The YouTube Phenomena
Three guys, one garage, one idea: the end result – a dating service called YouTube. Ten years
ago, Jawed Karim uploaded the very first video to his new website designed for
people looking for hookups. Karim was one of the three founders of YouTube,
also former PayPal employees, who uncovered something so big, they did not know
what to do with it. Luckily, the users knew better – instead of uploading
dating videos, they used it to share their personal videos (10 Years Ago). But put
a pin in that thought for a minute.
Let’s think of something crazy
here – why do we spend our time on YouTube? It offers no practical value while
Facebook allows you to keep in touch with friends, and Twitter lets you get
quick news updates. You can pull the pin out now, because when users started
uploading videos of all kinds, they decided the future of the website. Because
one major reason why we use video sharing service is to feed our need for sharing cool stuff that happens in our
lives. But, that’s not the whole story. Do you want to find out how YouTube
keeps content creators – creating, and viewers – watching? Get comfy, it might
get a little complicated.
It’s All about What People Want
YouTube is, first and foremost, a social media platform.
In regular English that means the website gives us a sense of online community.
That means people can watch videos while interacting with each other through
comments. The whole idea is that anybody can be a YouTuber and even go viral.
Direct contact between the viewers and the content creators makes the platform engaging.
Commenters themselves tell the channels what they want to watch next.
Bryan Mueller, calls it a “Participatory Culture”. He states that
viewer dictated content supports a more flexible way of content production.
Think about the video format – on TV we only watch video segments of at least
30 minutes. Now suddenly even a 30 second video is not outside of the norm. Pair
that with the fact that your favorite videos are available anytime of the day, on
demand and you have a success story.
The Only Free Cheese Is in a Mousetrap
It is safe to say that YouTube is not going anywhere anytime soon.
It transformed the way we discover the information on the web. Statistically,
it is one of the largest search engines, coming in only second after – wait for
it – Google itself. That means there enough of a user base to populate a
country. Millions of videos uploaded, billions of people watching, and yet the
website is free to use. If you’ve ever taken any introductory economics course
you’d know that there is no such thing as free lunch – everything has a cost.
Google makes money mostly through advertising banners and in-video ads.
YouTubers make money through a partnership program that pays them according to how
much views they get per video and per channel.
A big user base like that
doesn’t go unnoticed by other companies who try to sell their products. Promoted
content, which is a type of native advertising, took YouTube with a storm. It
is a very effective, but highly controversial method of generating sales. Some
popular channels, like the Unboxing Therapy, consist mainly of promoted content
and get millions of views per each video. You guessed it right, it is an
unboxing channel, where the host provides an unboxing experience without having
to buy the thing in the first place.
The problem with native advertising, is that the viewers have to
be aware that they are watching
sponsored content. FTC has cracked down on the issue with guidelines on how to
properly disclose endorsements.
The Internet Sensation
Let’s
address the elephant in the room – virality of YouTube videos. Remember Gangnam
Style music video by Psy? You probably remember that it was the first video to
break the billionth view mark. But,
it never stopped the momentum and currently is sitting at roughly 2.5 billion
views. There are only few websites that can boast about having as big of an
impact on the Internet community as YouTube does.
There
is whole bunch of science behind a video going viral that can be summed up with
the idea of an inside joke (Videos go
viral). A group of people share a video among each other, others want in on the
joke, and as the circle gets bigger, the view counter grow. Realistically, only
a small percentage of videos ever go viral. How can others share the spotlight
when the whole world is watching? The website is full of massively talented
people, so things only get more creative from here. Think back when Nyan Cat
popped up in 2011 –
it went viral and got tons of views – we know that. However, there is also an
around the world version, remixed version, 10 hour version and reaction videos,
including cats watching cats watching the Nyan Cat. This is just one example
out of many, many more.
Video Domination
There
are two main ways YT can continue to grow. First, consider that many 18 year
olds would find PewDiePie, a popular gaming channel YouTuber, more famous than
most Hollywood A-list celebrities (3 Strategies). If YouTube sells them as
such, their popularity will skyrocket, in turn bringing more views to the
website itself. Second, YT has to be very accessible and a pleasant experience
for the viewer. That means minimal buffering times and a responsive
website/app.
YouTube and Google have the monopoly of the Internet search engines. In a way – YouTube is one of the video frontpages of the Internet. Can you be the next Nyan Cat or impress the world with your moves like Psy? Maybe you’d like to make a living off of your own creativity
Works Cited
10 Years Ago Today, YouTube Launched
as a Dating Website. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2015.
3 Strategies to Unlock YouTube's
Potential in 2015. (2015, January 6). Retrieved September 26, 2015.
Mueller, B. (2014). Participatory
culture on YouTube: A case study of the multichannel network Machinima. MEDIA@LSE
MSc Dissertation Series, 35-35. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from
http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaWorkingPapers/MScDissertationSeries/2013/msc/104-Mueller.pdf
Why videos go viral. (n.d.).
Retrieved September 21, 2015.
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