YouTube



One of the most influential new media technologies that have expanded is the social media sector. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube have extended their functions as users increase. Specifically, YouTube has grown at an extraordinary speed since its establishment in 2005. “YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.” (YouTube). It became successful within just one year of its creation and with a very short and brief history. The intelligence behind YouTube also use the advantage of psychological effect of videos to build its future by bringing the online community closer to politics. In recent years, YouTube has gained enough influence to be legitimately considered a competitor for traditional television broadcasts.

Statistics
There are striking statistics on the top video sharing site. According to Jeff Bullas, more videos are uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years. YouTube is not only popular in the U.S. but also internationally. 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US. YouTube is localized in 39 countries and across 54 languages, 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second. YouTube’s primary features are sharing, conversations, groups and reputation. There are other various data that account for social media usage and effectiveness for individuals worldwide. Some of these statistics research done by socialnomics.net shows that, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. In four minutes and 26 seconds, 100+ hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube. Since its creation in February of 2005, YouTube has been able to grow and revolutionize the world of New Media. In order to examine the impact of this powerful sharing site, it is important to understand its historic background that led to YouTube’s success today. Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were former PayPal employees founded YouTube. According to a story that has often been repeated in the media, Hurley and Chen developed the idea for YouTube during the early after they had experienced difficulty in sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen's apartment in San Francisco. Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, while Chen commented that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible"(Wikipedia). YouTube was officially launched in December 2005, which had generated 8 videos views in just one day. In less than a year, there were 100 million video views and 65,000 videos uploaded per day (“Website Monitoring,” 2010). In February of 2006, YouTube proved to be the driving factor behind successful new media technology when it struck a deal with NBC in June 2006. After this deal, YouTube was able to help the traditional media company enter the new digital age when NBC requested YouTube to use a clip “Lazy Sunday” from SNL. YouTube was able to attract more users to its site, and it launched its Content Verification Program to help content owners like NBC locate and remove video that infringes on their copyrights. Another major turning point for YouTube was when Google acquired it for 1.65 billion dollars in October 2006; at the time Google called it "the next step in the evolution of the Internet" (Dickey, 2013). The historic timeline has blatantly showed how YouTube was capable of growing into a ubiquitous site in less than 2 years. Although YouTube has grown at an impeccable speed, it didn’t stop creating innovative ways of engagement with its users.

Viral Videos
"Gangnam Style," the unlikely smash hit by South Korean rapper Psy, has surpassed Justin Bieber's "Baby" to become the most-watched YouTube video of all time. The video--featuring Psy's meme-ready dance moves--has racked up more than 815 million views since it was uploaded to YouTube on July 15. Bieber's "Baby," which has been watched more than than 803 million times since it was posted in February 2010. "#GangnamStyle just became the most watched video @YouTube!" Psy (real name: Park Jae-Sang) tweeted on Saturday. "#History." "Gangnam Style" already holds the title for "most liked" video in YouTube history with more than 2 million "likes," according to the Guinness Book of World Records, which officially recognized the achievement in September. The video for LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" is a distant second with more than 1.6 million "likes." Bieber's "Baby" is no. 3 in that category. But true Beliebers, fear not: The 18-year-old pop star is not taking the "most viewed" loss lying down, tweeting a shirtless picture from the gym for his 30 million Twitter followers.

After Gangnam style, Psy released a new single called "Gentleman". It set the record for the most views ever in a single day with over 38 million hits on April 14 alone. “Gentleman” was seen 100 million times in less than 4 days worldwide, a milestone that took “Gangnam Style” nearly two months to achieve. As of May 9, 2013 "Gentleman" has been viewed over 300 million times.

Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris

In July 2010 the video turned out to be the most viewed video in YouTube history. The song received positive complements on lyrics and chorus and the part from Ludacris’. It was on top 10 charting in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, Norway, Hungary, Belgium, Slovakia and New Zealand. The music video has over 800 million views. It was the most viewed until the end of 2012 Gangnam Style by Psy pushed Baby by Justin Bieber to 2nd most viewed in YouTube.  

Kony 2012

With more than 100 million views in six days, "Kony 2012" became the most viral video as of 2012. The video is a documentary that sought the arrest of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistant Army. Joseph Kony is depicted as being particularly cruel in that he kidnaps and raises young Ugandan children to be ruthless child soldiers. In some cases the children would be made to kill members of their own families. The video was made by Jason Russell, who was arrested later in 2012 for public drunkeness and lewd behavior in California.

Charlie Bit My Finger

YouTube's most viewed video of all time is an unlikely champion. Seen more than 170 million times since its posting in May 2007, "Charlie Bit My Finger" was never meant to be anything more than a family flick. But the Internet's hive mind saw something it liked and catapulted the clip, which depicts a laughing British baby gnawing on the finger of his crying brother, past "Evolution of Dance" as YouTube's views champ by the fall of 2009. 

Censorship and filtering
Several countries have blocked access to YouTube.
 * YouTube has been blocked in China since October 18, 2007.


 * Morocco shut down access to YouTube in 2008.


 * Thailand blocked YouTube between 2006 and 2007 due to offensive videos relating to King Bhumibol Adulyadej.


 * Turkey blocked access to YouTube between 2008 and 2010 after controversy over videos deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.  The block was lifted briefly but reimposed in November 2010.


 * On December 3, 2006, Iran temporarily blocked access to YouTube, along with several other sites, after declaring them as violating social and moral codes of conduct. The YouTube block came after a video was posted online that appeared to show an Iranian soap opera star having sex. The block was later lifted and then reinstated after Iranian presidential election, 2009|Iran's 2009 presidential election.


 * On February 23, 2008, Pakistan blocked YouTube because of "offensive material" towards the Islamic faith, including display of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy|Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. This led to a near global blackout of the YouTube site for around two hours, as the Pakistani block was inadvertently transferred to other countries. Pakistan lifted its block on February 26, 2008. Many Pakistanis circumvented the three-day block by using virtual private network software. In May 2010, following the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, Pakistan again blocked access to YouTube, citing "growing sacrilegious content".


 * On January 24, 2010, Libya blocked access to YouTube after it featured videos of demonstrations in the Libyan city of Benghazi by families of detainees who were killed in Abu Salim prison in 1996, and videos of family members of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at parties. The blocking was criticized by Human Rights Watch.


 * In September 2012, several countries with a large Muslim population, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sudan blocked access to YouTube following controversy over a 14 minute trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims which had been posted on the site.    Russia also blocked access to YouTube over the same controversy. The trailer was blamed for 2012 diplomatic missions attacks|violent protests in Libya and Egypt. YouTube stated that "This video – which is widely available on the Web – is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube. However, given the very difficult situation in Libya and Egypt we have temporarily restricted access in both countries."


 * Departments of education in some regions have blocked student access to YouTube, with some state education departments in Australia citing the inability to determine what sort of video material might be accessed.

Paid Subscription Channels
Youtube Paid Subscriptions Channels

In may 2013 youtube introduces a paid subscription service that allows users to pay a monthly fee for a content channel subscription. This was very much expected, in an attempt to compete with other video media such as Hulu and Netflix. The program started with 53 participants, genres from Comedy to Live sports. The prices for subscription start at just 99 cents per month and range up to $6.99 per month depending on the content. Users are offered a 14 day trial to all subscription channels and some channels may provide a discounted rate if the user signs up for a full year of content. Paid subscribers can access there content from computers, phones, tablets, and TVs, but are only able to subscribe initially through Desktop.

Old Spice Campaign
During Superbowl Sunday in February 2010, old spice launched its "The man your man can smell like" campaign. It aired on Youtube rather than on national television like most Superbowl Sunday ads. The old spice man is played by actor Isiah Mustafa, who takes on the role of a manly shirtless man who without breaking a stare delivers a message about old spice body wash. That message is the man your man can smell like. The campaign was about the old spice guy, soliciting fans for questions and dishing out personal response videos, 180 response videos in total that is. The old spice man became an overnight sensation. The statistics speak for itself. The ad Received 5.9 million Youtube views the first day it aired. On the second day of the campaign, 8 of Old Spice’s videos were named most popular out of 11 on the web. A week after the campaign launched, their Youtube videos received over 40 million views. Old Spice’s Twitter followers increased by 2700%. Facebook fan interaction went up 800%. Traffic to Oldspice.com increased by 300%. Branded as #1 most viewed branded Youtube channel of all time. Old Spice sales are up 107% making them the number one brand for men’s body wash. The man your man can smell like campaign is now viewed as a blueprint for social media marketing strategy. Marketing companies look to produce content for their clients that goes viral by mirroring this particular approach by old spice.

YouTube on Mobile Devices
As popularity of mobile devices connected to the internet grew, and as bandwidth provided by wireless carriers become faster and faster, YouTube has increased its popularity and become and mobile viewing became 25% of YouTube’s global watch time, with over a billion watches of videos via a cellphone or a tablet .

Since the opening of Apple’s AppStore YouTube for iOS was at the top 10 most downloaded applications. In May 2013, was the second most downloaded application worldwide. YouTube popularity is not limited to iPhone users. The Android mobile operating system, which is made by Google, comes with a YouTube app preinstalled on all devices.

However, unlike as it did for iOS and Android, Google didn’t publish an official application for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 operating system. In August 2013, this matter has resulted in a conflict between the two technology companies, Google has refused to provide Microsoft with the coding line in order for Microsoft to self-published an application for YouTube. As a response Microsoft’s software engineers have detoured YouTube’s policies and created a YouTube app for Windows Phone 8. The Microsoft published YouTube app enabled users to save clips on the mobile device, and also bypassed YouTube’s commercials, allowing users to immediately watch any video with no interference. The app was working for several days before Google requested Microsoft to remove the app, and later on blocked access to YouTube thru the app as Microsoft refused to remove it until Google will collaborate on creating a new app. To date there is no official YouTube app for Microsoft’s OS which now hold over 9% of the world’s smartphones.

In addition to mobile viewing based on wireless providers internet or Wi-Fi connection, YouTube has announced it will be rolling out a new application which will allow users to watch videos while the device is offline. By saving the video before disconnecting from a network, the device will be able to play it while it in not connected to the internet. However the video will be available only for 48 hour from the saving time, afterwards the user will have to connect to an internet source again in order to re-save it. This new feature comes to help those who spend long times commuting by planes or subways, where no internet connection is found. The offline viewing feature is expected to become available on all official YouTube mobile apps in November 2013.