YouTube

YouTube is the world's largest video-sharing platform, owned by Alphabet (Google), with over 2.5 billion monthly logged-in users and more than 500 hours of video uploaded every minute. Founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006 — one of the most successful acquisitions in tech history. YouTube generates revenue through advertising (YouTube Ads), premium subscriptions (YouTube Premium at $13.99/month removing ads and enabling background play), YouTube TV (live TV streaming at $72.99/month), channel memberships, and Super Chats during live streams. YouTube generated approximately $36 billion in ad revenue in 2024, making it the world's second-largest digital ad platform after Google Search. The platform hosts virtually every content category: music (YouTube Music), education (Khan Academy), gaming (top gaming channel MrBeast has 300M+ subscribers), news, and shorts (vertical video competing with TikTok). YouTube Shorts surpassed 70 billion daily views in 2023. The Creator Economy is central to YouTube: content creators receive 55% of ad revenue, and millions earn income through YouTube's Partner Program.