YouTube is an American online video sharing and social media platform launched by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim in February 2005. Its users watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. YouTube content creators, popularly referred to as YouTubers, upload over 100 hours of content per minute.In October 2006, YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65 billion. It has since evolved from a small video streaming platform to a large service influencing popular culture, internet trends, and creating multimillionaire celebrities. YouTube has reported revenues of $19.8 billion in 2020. After Google, YouTube is the most visited website worldwide, with over one billion monthly users. Google's ownership of YouTube has also changed its business model; it no longer generates revenue from advertisements alone. YouTube now offers paid content such as movies and exclusive content. YouTube and approved creators participate in Google's AdSense program, which generates more revenue for both parties.
YouTube has expanded beyond the website into mobile apps, network television, and to permitting other services like Discord and Nintendo to be linked to it. The range of videos on YouTube includes music videos, video clips, short films, feature films, documentaries, audio recordings, corporate sponsored movie trailers, live streams, vlogs, as well as content from popular YouTubers. Most content is generated by individuals, including collaborations between YouTubers and companies that sponsor them. Since around 2015, established media corporations such as Disney, ViacomCBS, and WarnerMedia have created and expanded their corporate YouTube channels to promote their content to a larger audience. YouTube also acts as a social network by allowing users with a Google account to watch and upload their own videos, comment on videos, rate and respond to comments, like or dislike videos, create playlists, and subscribe to other users and channels.
With billions of hours of content and thousands of niche groups, YouTube has also had a great social impact. As it has grown and evolved, it has become involved in many controversies that have made headline news such as its self-censorship, alleged corporate favoritism, allowing its users to spread conspiracy theories, and issues regarding child safety and wellbeing.