What is YouTube?
YouTube is a unique case of a platform that favours the popularisation of long-form content – in the context of how other flagship social platforms have developed.
It is a place where the longest published video runs to almost 600 hours – a place where you can listen to an archive concert from the 1950s, learn how to crack open a coconut, watch a tutorial on cooking a steak in 5 minutes, take part in an international scientific conference, find an e-book in Italian, download the soundtrack of your favourite game and watch loads of films and videos. What else does the YouTube platform have to offer?
The age of the YouTuber
The YouTube service has been running since 2005. From the very beginning it has offered the ability to publish, rate and comment on videos shared by users. Material posted on YouTube is public or private – depending on the content owner’s settings.
On the platform anyone can become a real creator. A debut on YouTube has over the years become a common starting point for the careers of many of today’s stars. Their further development can be followed on YouTube, and the videos they share let creators earn a tidy sum.
YouTube creates many opportunities – for creators and viewers alike. The range of subjects covered by videos on the platform is practically unlimited. YouTube is a space for music, film and streaming, as well as a broad communication platform for gamers, vloggers and many influencers. The most popular of them can count on huge popularity, win a host of fans and become true internet stars.
What do YouTube, Google and influencers have in common?
YouTube was created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. Today the platform is owned by Google, which bought it back in 2006 (a year after it was founded) and has invested in its development with great care. Google and YouTube, especially where advertising is concerned, make a well-matched advertising duo. Influencers, for their part, readily take advantage of the opportunities they offer. You could say that what connects them is advertising – literally and figuratively.
YouTube’s functionality is mainly about uploading and playing videos, and videos, as we all know… get on very well with advertising. Short ad spots are a great opportunity to promote products that match the subject of the video being watched. As a result, reaching the target audience is easier, and advertising is personalised to the satisfaction of both the advertiser and the audience for its messages.
YouTube at its full potential
To simply watch videos, you do not need to register on YouTube. However, as with most publicly available portals, registering opens up many additional options and gives access to the platform’s full functionality, such as creating private playlists.
YouTube is by design a free platform, but there is also the YouTube Premium option, which through a paid subscription offers special features, including watching video content without ads, downloading videos to mobile devices and playing them offline, and listening to music in the background while using other apps. It is also significant that the YouTube search engine is the largest search tool in the world after Google, so its advertising potential is huge.
