You think you know YouTube. It’s where billions of people learn how to change a tire, follow a favorite yoga workout or catch footage of Monday’s solar eclipse.
But maybe you don’t know that YouTube is also the most popular way to hear music and one of the country’s largest cable TV providers. YouTube is the healthiest economy on the internet. And it has been rocket fuel for artificial intelligence.
I’m digging into YouTube’s identity because it’s essential to understand the influence of technologies in our lives. As popular as YouTube is, its power over the internet and us is somehow still underrated.
Let me try to persuade you that YouTube is the most consequential technology in America:
YouTube is No. 1 in video and music listening
YouTube might be best known for wasting a few minutes at a supermarket checkout or on the toilet. (Sorry.)
YouTube, however, is also America’s top living room streaming destination. Data from Nielsen consistently shows that Americans spend more time watching YouTube on TV sets than we do any streaming service including Netflix.
There isn’t reliable data counting the combined time we stream on TV, phones, computers and other devices, but YouTube would likely be tops on that measure, too.
YouTube TV, which is like cable TV but accessed over the internet, is also now one of the leading cable TV providers in the country.
In music, more people tune into songs on YouTube than we do on Spotify, the radio or any other audio service.
In a survey of people in several countries by Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research, about two-thirds of respondents watched music videos on YouTube. About 43 percent listened to music online another way and 31 percent have a streaming music subscription like those from Spotify and Apple Music.
P.S. The most widely used social app among American adults is YouTube by a mile, Pew Research Center says. The most widely used app among teens isn’t TikTok. It’s YouTube again by a mile.
It’s the healthiest economy on the internet
If you post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit or X, you are basically making those companies’ products for free. YouTube doesn’t work that way.
From each dollar that advertisers pay for commercials on many millions of YouTube videos, the person who made the video gets 55 cents. Google, which owns YouTube, keeps the rest.
YouTube has had this financial arrangement for close to 20 years. Still today, no other large app has such a consistent way for people to earn income from what they create and post online.
YouTube’s revolutionary payment system matters to you even if you never earn a dime from making a YouTube video.
A healthy internet economy, like a well-functioning United States economy, is one in which everyone believes he has a shot to thrive. That includes you as the viewer, the people making the information or entertainment you’re watching and the companies distributing the material.
YouTube is far from perfect on this score, but it may be the closest thing to the financially ideal online economy.
by Shira Ovide, Washington Post | Read more:
Image: via
Let me try to persuade you that YouTube is the most consequential technology in America:
YouTube is No. 1 in video and music listening
YouTube might be best known for wasting a few minutes at a supermarket checkout or on the toilet. (Sorry.)
YouTube, however, is also America’s top living room streaming destination. Data from Nielsen consistently shows that Americans spend more time watching YouTube on TV sets than we do any streaming service including Netflix.
There isn’t reliable data counting the combined time we stream on TV, phones, computers and other devices, but YouTube would likely be tops on that measure, too.
YouTube TV, which is like cable TV but accessed over the internet, is also now one of the leading cable TV providers in the country.
In music, more people tune into songs on YouTube than we do on Spotify, the radio or any other audio service.
In a survey of people in several countries by Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research, about two-thirds of respondents watched music videos on YouTube. About 43 percent listened to music online another way and 31 percent have a streaming music subscription like those from Spotify and Apple Music.
P.S. The most widely used social app among American adults is YouTube by a mile, Pew Research Center says. The most widely used app among teens isn’t TikTok. It’s YouTube again by a mile.
It’s the healthiest economy on the internet
If you post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit or X, you are basically making those companies’ products for free. YouTube doesn’t work that way.
From each dollar that advertisers pay for commercials on many millions of YouTube videos, the person who made the video gets 55 cents. Google, which owns YouTube, keeps the rest.
YouTube has had this financial arrangement for close to 20 years. Still today, no other large app has such a consistent way for people to earn income from what they create and post online.
YouTube’s revolutionary payment system matters to you even if you never earn a dime from making a YouTube video.
A healthy internet economy, like a well-functioning United States economy, is one in which everyone believes he has a shot to thrive. That includes you as the viewer, the people making the information or entertainment you’re watching and the companies distributing the material.
YouTube is far from perfect on this score, but it may be the closest thing to the financially ideal online economy.
by Shira Ovide, Washington Post | Read more:
Image: via
