With the discussion generated surrounding Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, many people are curious about the behind-the-scenes of other large social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube. Did you know that YouTube is the second most popular in the world after Google?
What company owns YouTube?
Google is the parent company of YouTube. It acquired the video-sharing platform in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Since then, YouTube has become one of the world’s largest and most popular websites, with millions of users uploading and watching videos daily. Google provides the technology and infrastructure that powers YouTube and also benefits from the revenue generated by the site through advertising. The relationship between Google and YouTube is largely a partnership, with both companies working together to create a successful and profitable platform.
How did YouTube start?
YouTube was founded in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. The idea for YouTube came about when Hurley and Chen struggled to share a video they had recorded at a dinner party. They realised that it would be easier to share videos online and created a website allowing users to upload and share videos easily.
After officially launching in April 2005, the YouTube site had millions of users and received millions of views daily in the first year. In October 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.
How does YouTube make money?
Overall, the main source of revenue for YouTube is advertising. Advertisers pay to display their ads on the platform, and YouTube earns a commission from these ad views.
Advertising
YouTube displays ads on its platform and earns a commission from advertisers when users click on or watch those ads.
Subscription services
YouTube offers a paid subscription service called YouTube Premium, which allows users to watch videos without ads and includes additional features such as offline viewing and access to exclusive content.
Merchandise sales
Some creators sell merchandise through their YouTube channels, such as t-shirts or other branded items. YouTube takes a small percentage of these sales as a fee.
