YouTube

Indhold

Launch and development
Main features and services
Controversy

Launch and development

YouTube was created in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who previously worked for the online payment company PayPal. The intention of the creators was to launch a community video-sharing site that could serve as an alternative to television.

YouTube was revolutionary in the social media world because it offered a simple interface at a time when posting and viewing videos online was a difficult task. The site started out as a public beta version and went through several interface changes until it was officially launched.

The site gained immediate popularity and, in 2006, YouTube signed its first deal with three major music labels. Later that year, the site was acquired by Google. The company announced that, in 2006, more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day.

In 2011, the site radically changed its interface to resemble television. YouTube introduced channels on its homepage, directing the users’ navigation towards channels for entertainment, sports, music, news, etc. The users could...