YouTube Essentials

Overview and Features

YouTube is a consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience.

Everyone can watch videos on YouTube—both at YouTube.com and across the Internet. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow.

Some of the site's features include:

Video embedding, which lets users insert a YouTube video into MySpace accounts, blogs, or other Web sites where anyone can watch them
Public or private videos—users can elect to broadcast their videos publicly or share them privately with friends and family upon upload
Subscriptions allow users to keep track of their favorite users' new videos

By registering, users are able to upload and share videos, save favorites, create playlists, and comment on the videos. YouTube is building a community that is highly motivated to watch and share videos. The YouTube service is free and will be supported by advertising.

The YouTube Community

YouTube is a place for people to engage in new ways with video by sharing, commenting on, and viewing videos. YouTube originally started as a personal video sharing service, and has grown into an entertainment destination with people watching more than 50 million videos on the site daily. Our users determine what is popular on the site, and can unleash their creativity and broadcast their talents to a global audience.

YouTube is creating a community for personal video, musicians, amateur filmmakers and comedians, and professional content owners. Our service is extremely viral, so if someone has a lot of talent and their content is really creative, users will be more likely to share the videos.

The explosion in consumer devices with video capability is giving users control over the videos they record, watch, and share, and YouTube is dedicated to making their experience as easy and entertaining as possible.

Unlike traditional broadcast channels, which have set windows for their programming, people can watch what they want, when they want on YouTube. We are focused on building the best user experience and the best platform for people to share their videos around the world. Anyone can broadcast themselves by creating content and distributing it through YouTube. And the community decides what is popular through their ratings and comments.

Traffic

YouTube is currently serving 50 million videos per day to six million unique users daily, up from 3 million in December, with more than 50,000 videos being uploaded per day. YouTube is serving more than 200 million page views a day and is ranked the 18th most trafficked site on the Internet, according to Alexa.

We continue to grow exponentially month-to-month, so check back in for the latest metrics.

For more industry information and market statistics, you can contact LeeAnn Prescott at Hitwise at leeann.prescott@hitwise.com.

Timeline

YouTube was founded in February 2005 from a garage in Menlo Park, and development began immediately. We started a public preview in May of last year and officially launched the company and service in December 2005. YouTube has already grown to serve more than 50 million video views per day and is receiving more than 50,000 video uploads daily.

Demographics

Our user base is 18-49, spanning all geographies. With such a large and diverse user base, YouTube offers something for everyone.

Founders

Chad Hurley, Chief Executive Officer, and Steve Chen, Chief Technology Officer, co-founded the company. They met at PayPal where they played fundamental roles in the early development of the payment service. Chad was the first user interface designer and Steve was part of the early engineering team.

The idea for the company came about during a dinner party with a group of friends, when they were taking videos from their digital cameras. When they tried to share the footage, they realized how difficult it was to email it or put it on the Web. They built the company around making video sharing easy, fast, and fun.

Funding

YouTube announced its first round of funding in November 2005 for $3.5 million from venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital. In April 2006, YouTube received an additional $8 million in a second round of funding from Sequoia.

Business Model

YouTube is pursuing advertising as its business model, and is exploring a range of possibilities including promotions, sponsorships, contextual-based advertising, traditional banner advertising, etc. But more than anything else, we're committed to providing the best consumer experience to watch, upload, and share videos. When building a community, it is critical to get the model right.

Market Size

The online advertising market continues to grow and has increased by about 30% to an estimated $12.5 billion in 2005, according to the IAB/PricewaterhouseCoopers. With the explosion of Internet video in 2006, the increase in home broadband access (more than 60% of homes have broadband), and with consumers spending more time on the Web, companies are shifting their advertising budgets from traditional TV advertising to the online video market. This presents a significant market opportunity for YouTube.

Content Partners

YouTube is a stage for everyone, including traditional media companies, filmmakers, record labels, movie studios, comedians and more. With the shift happening in digital media entertainment and a new clip culture evolving, professional and independent content creators are recognizing the potential of promoting themselves on YouTube.

Director Program

YouTube implemented a 10-minute limit for video uploads in March 2006 to prohibit unauthorized videos from being uploaded to the site. Recognizing that there are many legitimate content creators making videos over 10 minutes, we created a new program called YouTube Directors in April 2006.

The service is set up for videobloggers, comedians, professional content producers, filmmakers, musicians, and anyone else making videos. Upon successful registration, YouTube Director accounts receive the following benefits:

logo on all video pages and profiles
Users' own logos, company/organization URL, and description on all of their video pages
Ability to upload videos longer than 10 minutes
Customizable name & value fields for each video (ex: "Price: $4.25" or "Show Time: 9 pm PST")
Ability to attach a per-video URL to each video

The YouTube Director program is completely free to legitimate, original content creators. Users must apply via the YouTube website to become a Director at www.youtube.com/director.