YouTube, Leadership, Ownership, Coding language and Logo

YouTube, Introduction

YouTube is one of the best online video sharing company and social media platforms in the internet world. Google currently owns it. It boasts of over 2.5 billion monthly users worldwide, the second most visited site after Google search. The site has evolved beyond the core website into mobile apps, network television, and linking with other platforms.

It also enables users to watch content without ads through YouTube Premium, a paid subscription. It has created multimillionaire celebrities, and influenced popular culture and internet trends. Individuals generate the most content on the site. Additionally, established media corporations including Warner Bros have also created and expanded their YouTube channels to advertise to a greater audience.

YouTube, The Beginning

Three brains are behind the development of the site. Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were initially employees of PayPal were its founders. Both Chen and Karim had studied Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Hurley had studied design at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

According to Karimi, YouTube became an idea when Janet Jackson`s breast was briefly exposed by Justin Timberlake during the Super Bowl XXXXVII halftime show controversy. The clips of that incident could not be easily found including those of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. It was first built around the idea of an online dating service under the influence by the website Hot or Not. Dating videos were difficult to find making the founders accept the loading of any video.

YouTube, First Video and Launch

In February 2005, www.youtube.com became active. The first video uploaded “Me at the Zoo” featured Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. An ad featuring Ronaldinho became the first to strike one million views. The site launched officially on December 15 2005 with videos limited to only 100 megabytes, about 30 seconds of footage.

YouTube, Google Ownership

On October 9, 2006, Google announced the purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock. At this time YouTube issued the slogan “Broadcast Yourself”. In 2011, the company changed its interface making the logo have a darker shade of red.

YouTube, Leadership

Hurley stepped down as chief executive officer to an advisory role in October 2010. Salar Kamangar took over as head of the company.
In February 2014 Susan Wojcicki became Chief Executive Officer. Susan Wojcicki resigned in 2023. Neal Mohan became CEO on February 16, 2023.

YouTube, The Coding Language, and Logo

It is written in Python,( core/API), C(through CPython), C++, Java (through Guice platform), Go, and JavaScript(UI). It launched the polymer redesign of its user interfaces built around the service`s play button emblem in August 2017.

YouTube, Content

It is majorly a video site. Videos on the site include music videos, video clips, news, feature films, songs, documentaries, movie trailers, short films, live streams, vlogs, teasers and many others.

YouTube, Earnings

It launched a Partner Program in May 2007, based on AdSense which allows video uploaders to share revenue produced by advertising on the site. Channels with at least ten thousand subscribers require a paid subscription for viewers to watch the videos. This came in 2013. The eligibility requirement for monetization changed to 4,000 hours of watch time within 12 months and 1000 subscribers in 2018.

YouTube, Censorship and Bans

Censorship of the site is done for a variety of reasons in several countries. In Iran, for example, it was banned as a result of morality-based laws. Some countries temporarily blocked it for some periods such as run-ups to elections to minimize misinformation. If one particular video turns out to be the reason for a ban, YouTube often agrees to remove access to the video in order to resume service.