YouTube was founded by three former PayPal employees in 2005 to bridge the gap video sharing website market. In 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion and that was the beginning of it turning into a media giant. YouTube now has over a billion users, with people watching hundreds of millions of hours of videos on the site every day. Almost all of the business giants worldwide use YouTube to share their content, through their YouTube channel. Companies are now aware of the power of the website on the media industry as a whole.
This revolution in media has also seen the rise of a segment of people who have made creation and uploading legitimate and useful content, their profession. Their YouTube channel is a full time occupation and a primary source of income. YouTube users or “YouTube’s“, have made their videos, their careers and this has created an exceptional impact on quite a few industries. In fact, it wouldn’t be very wrong to say that YouTube has revolutionized and impacted many industries at various levels.
Online entertainment is faster, easier and more accessible, suiting the needs & preferences of the average modern day person, more than traditional entertainment. YouTube is particularly popular as it caters to the current interests of most people. Most YouTuber’s prefer to watch content online rather than on television. Keeping up with the changing times and preferences, entertainment has steadily moved to online channels. As people become busier, they have limited time to sit in front of a television. Many media companies are focusing only on online entertainment, creating content purely for an online audience. YouTube competes with some of the biggest television programs and often, it wins in terms of views.
The rise of the YouTuber has forced the rest of the media industry to view them as legitimate content creators and entertainers, recognizing their popularity and acknowledging them in mainstream entertainment.
The YouTube culture has now become so powerful that the biggest YouTubers are being considered celebrities in their own right. With the right presentation, videos quickly become “viral” and the YouTubers catapult to the league of celebrities.
Many events are organized to bring YouTubers and their fans together. These serve as a fabulous medium at a very minimal investment.
A quick look at the changes or trends set by YouTube:
Brings the World Closer
One of the incredible things about YouTube is its ability to make the world smaller. YouTube may not have literally shrunk the globe, but figuratively it has achieved just that. Now no place is too far off. Thanks to YouTube, we now have the power to travel the world with a single click.
Of course, this was possible in the pre- YouTube era as well. We could learn about distant countries and cultures through books, documentaries and published pictures. However, YouTube takes things a step further, and enables us to learn about places and cultures around the world from the actual people who live there.
It’s brilliant that a quick YouTube search can take us atop the Andes or the snow capped peaks of the Himalayas, watch the Traditional Indigenous Australian dance video, take an educational trip to Spain, or find out everything there is to know about Iceland.
This opens new doors for people, bringing awareness of cultures around the globe, and all sorts of interesting people who live on our planet, fascinating music and dance that we’ve never heard before, and so much to see, discover and soak up.
Facilitates People With Talents
In recent years, YouTube has helped discover so many new talents. It has become easier for talented singers, dancers, actors and artists to achieve instant fame. A person can upload a video of himself singing to YouTube and, if it gets seen by the right people, he could receive millions of views, get a record deal and set in motion a whole new life at once.
In the pre- YouTube era, singers performed to smaller audiences in bars, local events, theatres etc. hoping that the right people would hear about them and offer them a chance to make it big. YouTube offers an instant audience of millions. Though uploading a video to YouTube doesn’t guarantee your ticket to fame, it increases the chances of someone with real, genuine talent and originality getting discovered.
A Platform For Positive Change
YouTube provides people a platform globally, to post videos that portray realities and bring about positive change. They can show the world the reality of situations that may not be broadcast on the news or let people know about different issues that they may not have heard about and getting viewers to take action.
Non-profit organizations, fundraising teams and more have used YouTube to create awareness about everything from saving endangered species to building support for specially-abled individuals, through web video activism on YouTube. Millions have been raised and petitions have been signed as the result of YouTube campaigns..
Modernized Entertainment
YouTube has revolutionized entertainment. It has literally brought entertainment to our fingertips. We used to watch television, go to the movies, read books for entertainment. Now, we can spend hours on YouTube, watching video after video. YouTube has shows, movies, home movies, animated shorts, web series and more and we can watch it all from home for free.
And more importantly, YouTube empowers the viewers as we can watch whatever we wish to and is not limited to the content aired on televisions, watch any movie of our choice.
YouTube entertainment isn’t limited to YouTube alone. YouTube clips shown on the news and on other popular social media like Facebook, Twittter etc. Sending a viral video is a matter of a few clicks and can be shared through mediums like WhatsApp, Emails, Instagram etc. Where, earlier people discussed latest box office hits earlier, now the discussion is around the viral video and its impact.
Revolutionized Education
YouTube has transformed the world’s education scene. Conventional ways such as listening to mentors, books or attending classes are no longer the only resources pursue education. Countless how-to, documentary and instructional videos almost all topics under sky can be found on YouTube.
Videos make it more interesting and visual to hold the interest of students while learning new skills and knowledge. YouTube has also allowed anyone who has deep, profound knowledge on any subject to become an educator. They can create and upload videos, share their expertise and knowledge to help other people. In this sense, YouTube has also altered education into a much quicker pace. Information can be spread wider across the globe creating a more informed society.
Video logging
One of the trendy types of video which has changed the way people communicate is video logging. It is similar to blogging except video logging allows the author to share their experiences and hobbies using a video format, reducing the limitations of written text. With video logging, anyone who has access to the Internet can make their own videos and upload them onto this website.
News
YouTube has enabled anyone to become a reporter and share news that may interest the world. Earlier, news was broadcasted only on television or newspapers and interviews were conducted only by reporters. Their account may not be complete or even edited before being aired on the television. YouTube has changed the way news is communicated to the public.
YouTube has also established itself as a new platform for global news. Breaking news captured by individuals using mobile or video cameras are uploaded on YouTube almost real-time. Probably, they were taken by those who were on the scene and watched a natural disaster unfold in front of their eyes.
With the ability to share on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, the public is able to watch the unfolding of events by the minutes as if in real life.
Business
Many business organizations are taking advantage on the popularity of YouTube to promote their products and services. YouTube boasts a huge audiences, claiming about 2 billion videos being streamed per day. And without doubt, YouTube has become one of the effective mediums of advertising for businesses. Formerly, advertisements were broadcast through television, movie theatres, newspapers and magazines, which was expensive, time consuming and ineffective in terms of audience targeting.
YouTube has broken all those limitations. Firstly, business organizations need to pay when users watch their advertisements. YouTube also allows businesses to advertise based on their target audience. For example, a company that is selling sports equipment can choose to advertise their products and services on videos concerning to sports. This way of targeted advertising was almost impossible before YouTube.
YouTube has definitely changed how people communicate and collaborate in an enormous way. Digital content sharing and social networking has made traditional communication methods outdated. YouTube is, beyond doubt, one of the platforms that enable users to share their thoughts and experiences in a new, better and more rapid method.
Individuals can upload videos showcasing their personal talents and use the website as a platform to jumpstart a new career. Besides that, business organizations can also make use of YouTube to garner more viewership and popularity in order to promote their products and services. Furthermore, YouTube has also managed to transform the way news and educations are presented to the general public. All in all, YouTube has introduced a new way of communication and collaboration through content as well as information sharing. Almost a decade ago, this may seem impossible. However, technologies have helped this happen and it is growing in popularity and function day by day.
ABOUT THE WRITER
LION AMIR VIRNI