YouTube's journey from a failed dating site to the world's second most viewed website is a testament to its adaptability, evolving through technological advancements, the rise of the creator economy, and navigating significant controversies.
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YouTube, YouTube, YouTube.
>> How did YouTube go from a failed dating
site on the edge of bankruptcy to the
second most viewed website in the world
worth hundreds of billions of dollars?
YouTube's rise is a wild underdog
success story. But this video is also a
journey through the different eras of
YouTube. From the rise of the creator
economy to the ad apocalypse to all
kinds of scandals and drama. And trust
me, this story gets crazy. Welcome to
The story of YouTube begins in a
surprising place. The headquarters of PayPal.
PayPal.
It's 1999 and three early PayPal
employees are Steve Chen, Chad Hurley,
and Javit Karim. These three guys found
they made a great team together, but
they also had something else in common,
too. Often, the three of them would meet
for lunch at a coffee shop outside of
PayPal's headquarters and talk about all
the interesting ways the internet was
evolving and all the different business
ideas this gave them. Their dream was to
start their own internet company and get rich.
rich.
However, their dreams quickly fell apart.
apart.
In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay.
Its CEO was replaced and the company
focus changed. The new workload became
unbearable and boring.
So, Chad left PayPal to become a design
consultant. Jav went back to finish his
degree. And Steve eventually left for
Facebook. But the trio kept in touch and
by 2005 they were paying close attention
to a popular website called Hot or Not
which allowed anyone to upload a photo
of themselves for other people to rate.
The guys wondered what if instead of
pictures they built a site where users
could upload videos of themselves.
People could get rated and also reach
out to each other to connect. And they
even had a name for it. YouTube.
You because users were showing
themselves off and tube in reference to
old analog TV sets. And thus YouTube's
first slogan was tunein, hookup. So
YouTube was intended to be a video
dating site. Coincidentally, they
registered the domain for YouTube on
Valentine's Day 2005.
After months of tireless work, on April
23rd, 2005, YouTube entered a public
beta and Jav uploaded the first ever
YouTube video, which was just him at the
zoo. All right, so here we are in front
of the uh elephants. Um, cool thing
about these guys is this is that they
have really, really, really long um bump
and that's that's cool. At the top of
the site, you could enter if you were
searching for videos of men or women and
at what age range.
However, the problem was YouTube's
dating scene was a ghost town.
At one point, the founders tried to pay
women on Craigslist $20 to upload videos
of themselves.
But still, nobody was using it, and the
founders felt like months of work had
gone to waste.
At that moment, it was hard to imagine
they were about to change the internet forever.
YouTube's dating angle wasn't working,
but the guys had accidentally created
something entirely different.
Every day, new videos were uploaded to
YouTube, but instead of dating profiles,
they were snowboarding fails, cat
videos, back flips, and all kinds of
other homemade clips.
People were using YouTube to store
videos they had lying around on their SD
cards or computers.
And so, a month after launch, around
30,000 people were visiting the site
every day.
This hadn't been their plan, but the
founders figured they should run with
it. basically turn YouTube into a
database for people to store their
videos. When YouTube was a dating site,
we received zero video uploads for a
week, right? And then let's just make it
into a generic video site where you can
upload anything. And that's when we
really started seeing the videos. Steve,
Chad, and Jav worked tirelessly to
upgrade YouTube with new features like a
five-star rating system, a top videos
page, and the ability to embed videos
onto other websites.
However, a video sharing website was not
exactly an original idea. The first one
launched in 1997, and many others tried
breaking into the market ever since. But
the technological barriers these
websites faced were simply too high.
For starters, hosting and sending large
video files was really expensive. So,
websites either limited people's uploads
and downloads or they made them pay for
extra bandwidth.
And even then, every camera recorded
dozens of unique video formats, and
different websites and devices only
supported certain ones. Not to mention
that internet speeds back then meant
even small videos would take ages to
download. So, even though online video
sharing was clearly a good idea, none of
the early companies succeeded.
But YouTube had one key advantage over
everyone else. Timing.
Timing.
When building the first version of
YouTube, the founders made a smart
decision to use a free browser plug-in
called Flash Player. Flash converted any
kind of video to a single format. And
when coupled with their simple and
effective user interface, this made
YouTube way more accessible than other sites.
sites.
Flash also compressed files and came
with a video playback system that
streamed the video in small chunks. This
meant that on YouTube videos loaded
fast, completely for free, and you
didn't need to download them. To share
videos, you just sent a link. And this
changed everything.
What's interesting though is at this
point, the founders still saw YouTube
just as a way for people to store videos
that were relevant to them and share
them with friends and family. But then
something curious started happening.
Someone would upload a video with a
universally funny quality, and it was
only a matter of time until someone else
found the video and shared it with their
friends. At this point in 2005, MySpace
was the biggest social network site. And
so, if someone found a funny video on
YouTube, they'd post it on MySpace and
it would get re-shared over and over.
With the combined power of MySpace and
YouTube, early viral videos like David
After Dentist, the evolution of dance,
and Charlie bit my finger spread across
the internet like wildfire, getting
millions of views. And for YouTube,
viral videos meant more visitors, which
meant more uploads, which then led to
even more viral videos. It was a
snowball effect.
However, whilst this situation looked
great from the outside, inside the
Any website that hosts videos needs
somewhere to store them. But until now,
this hadn't been a problem for YouTube.
When starting out, Steve hired a data
hosting company called Server Beach, who
were offering unlimited bandwidth for
$129 a month. This was a good bargain
initially, but when the number of videos
uploaded to YouTube suddenly
skyrocketed, Server Beach quickly
realized their unlimited plan was not
going to work. So, they said YouTube
would have to start paying them
proportionally for the amount of
bandwidth they used. and the YouTube
guys had no choice but to accept.
This was a major issue as suddenly
Server Beach started charging thousands
of dollars to Steve's credit card every
month. And the even bigger problem was
YouTube still wasn't a functioning
business. They didn't even have a plan
for how they were going to make money.
So all of the initial excitement of
seeing their user number grow was
replaced by a panic. Every one of those
users was costing them money.
Around June 2005, Steve, Chad, and Jav
felt like the walls were closing in, and
they quickly started looking for investors.
investors.
Unfortunately, though, it seemed like
nobody wanted to invest.
People thought YouTube's concept was
great, but most investors didn't see it
as a viable business. They felt even if
YouTube could be monetized, the returns
would be mediocre at best, as video
hosting was just too expensive. And so
after months of unsuccessfully pitching
investors, things were looking bleak for
the three founders.
Every day close to a million people were
now visiting YouTube. But every month,
Server Beach was charging Steve many
thousands of dollars to host YouTube's videos.
videos.
This was unsustainable.
If they didn't find an investor soon,
Steve would probably go bankrupt and
that would be the end of YouTube.
However, one day Jav was at a barbecue
with one of his old co-workers from
PayPal. He just got married and said he
couldn't find a way to share the
honeymoon videos with his friends and
family. Obviously, Java jumped at this
opportunity and helped him upload his
videos to YouTube. But that guy just
happened to now be working for Sequoia
Capital, one of Silicon Valley's biggest
venture capital firms.
and he was so impressed with YouTube
that he connected the YouTube guys with
his partners at Sequoa who agreed to invest.
invest.
And thus in November 2005, YouTube got
the influx of cash they so desperately
needed, $3.5 million.
The founders breathed a sigh of relief,
and they used this money to hire more
employees and then crammed them into a
tiny office above a pizza restaurant.
Sure, it wasn't perfect. In fact, their
new office was literally infested with
rats. But the main thing was that
YouTube seemed like it had a future.
Unfortunately, this optimism didn't last
long because just a few weeks later,
YouTube's single biggest traffic source
For most users, YouTube was a way to
store videos for personal use or to
embed them on their websites.
But a handful of people were taking a
different approach. They were actually
making videos for YouTube consistently.
This was new and it was interesting. So
to help these people out, Steve, Chad,
and Jav updated YouTube with a new
feature, the subscribe button.
It seems simple, but this button would
actually save the company in a few
months and end up changing millions of
lives. For now, though, the subscribe
button had one immediate effect. More
people started uploading on a regular
basis. By November 2005, more than 2
million people were visiting the site
every day. By mid December, that was
closer to 8 million. YouTube's growth
numbers were doubling every week, and it
hadn't even left beta. YouTube launched
officially on December 15th, 2005.
But whilst they were busy celebrating,
others were conspiring against it. You
see, YouTube's viral hits were largely
because of MySpace. But MySpace wasn't
exactly happy about this.
Every time someone clicked a YouTube
link, they spent less time on MySpace.
So MySpace had no mercy. They started
removing posts with YouTube links,
censoring any mention of it, and they
even started their own video sharing
project called MySpace videos.
So the week after YouTube's official
launch, their main source of traffic was gone.
gone.
The biggest social network was now their
competitor. And they weren't the only ones.
ones.
Google, Yahoo, and Facebook all wanted
the video sharing market for themselves.
But even though YouTube had far less
resources, it did have something the
rest of these companies could only dream of.
of.
2 months after introducing the subscribe
button, YouTube was no longer a simple
video repository.
Thousands of people were now uploading
videos to YouTube for YouTube's sake,
and millions of people were watching
them every day.
It didn't matter if you were a musician,
a filmmaker, friends making comedy
skits, or whatever else it was you
wanted to share with the world. Now,
anyone anywhere could build a community
with people who shared their interests.
And so, when MySpace shadowbanned
YouTube, it didn't actually matter.
By January 2006, YouTube's daily
viewership had more than tripled to 25
million. By March, there were 25 million
total videos. And every day about 20,000
more were uploaded.
And with such staggering growth, YouTube
became the breeding ground for a new
kind of celebrity. Someone who was
accessible, relatable, and human. A YouTuber.
YouTuber.
Early popular YouTubers emerged like
Smosh, Brookers, I Justine, Fred, and
Lonely Girl 15. What's interesting is
back then there was a team at YouTube
dubbed the call hunters who would
manually find interesting videos to put
on the YouTube homepage rather than
using algorithms.
However, it would soon become hard for
the YouTube team to manage the huge
influx of videos they were getting.
Initially, moderation was all done by a
small team who would manually watch
every reported video and they were
exposed to all kinds of horrific
uploads. In fact, many of the team
started having nightmares.
And as the uploads just kept coming
faster and faster, YouTube would soon
Since anyone could upload pretty much
anything for free, people were using
YouTube to upload copyrighted music,
movies, and TV shows. And this pirated
content was getting lots of views.
Newsweek called YouTube the video
version of Napster and questioned if it
would get sued into oblivion.
Even a random video with a song as
background music counts as copyright
infringement. So all three major record
labels filed a barrage of lawsuits
against YouTube.
Not just that, but videos of an SNL skit
were uploaded to YouTube and watched
millions of times. So Viacom, one of the
biggest media companies in the world,
threatened YouTube with another massive
lawsuit if they didn't somehow remove
all of them. YouTube simply did not have
the tools to deal with all of this. And
to make things even worse, each day
around 65,000 new videos were now added
on top of the 25 million YouTube was
already hosting. And they still hadn't
figured out a good way to make money.
They had started running a small amount
of banner adverts or occasional ads on
very select channels. But at this point,
they didn't have a good ad system, and
they didn't know if either advertisers
or viewers would accept ads on these
short homemade videos. Not to mention
that they were concerned about running
ads on content when they had no idea if
the material was copyrighted or not, as
that can invite even more lawsuits.
So basically, YouTube was in a very
strange position. On the one hand, it
was one of the fastest growing websites
in internet history. On the other hand,
they had no meaningful revenue, were a
magnet for piracy, and were getting sued
by the biggest media companies on the planet.
planet.
In its current state, in the summer of
2006, it seemed like YouTube simply
couldn't succeed. And so, many prominent
business people thought YouTube was
practically worthless. But then to
everyone's shock, the YouTube founders
uploaded a video to YouTube's official
channel to say they'd been acquired.
>> Hi YouTube, this is Chad and Steve.
We're the co-founders of the site and we
just want to say thank you. Today we
have some exciting news for you. We've
been acquired by Google. Two kings have
gotten together.
The king the king the king of search the
king of video have gotten together.
>> Just 18 months after its launch, Google
bought YouTube for 1.65 $65 billion.
But why had Google suddenly decided to
buy YouTube?
Well, Google had attempted their own
service called Google Video, but it only
had around 10% market share. Whereas
YouTube had over half of the video
market. Google figured if you can't beat
them, buy them. However, Google buying
YouTube actually meant more copyright
holders piled on even harder. Viacom
announced they were suing YouTube for a
billion dollars.
So, how on earth would Google turn this
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Even after Google acquired YouTube, Chad
stayed on as CEO and Steve stayed in
charge of developing new features. So
the original vision for YouTube stayed
very much the same. The difference now
was that YouTube had the resources of
Google at their disposal. So, Google
began building a tool called Content ID.
This allowed copyright holders to upload
their content to a giant database and
YouTube would then be able to find
identical matches on its site. This
meant the copyright holder could then
remove the content or make money from
it. This was a massive breakthrough in
dealing with YouTube's copyright
problems. And so, that just left one
other big problem to solve, making
money. Of course, Google's biggest
strength has always been advertising.
And so, soon after Google acquired
YouTube, advertisements began playing
widely across the site. But this would
lead to a truly historic announcement.
You see, up until this point, most
YouTubers were making videos purely for
fun, to connect with people who shared
their interests, and to share their
lives with others. But what if they
could do all of that and get paid for it?
it?
In 2007, YouTube rolled out the YouTube
Partner Program, which paid YouTubers a
share of the revenue from the ads
running on their videos. The creator
would get 55% and YouTube would take 45%.
45%.
It sounds simple, but it was
revolutionary at the time. People had
just been happy YouTube let them host
their videos for free, and now they
could get paid for their hobby. This
immediately incentivized people to
create more videos and create even
better videos. If you wanted to make a
short film now, you didn't need
permission from a producer. If you
wanted to publish a song, you didn't
need permission from a record label. Or
if you wanted to give a lecture, you
didn't need permission from a university
board. All gatekeepers were removed. So
whatever your idea was, anyone could now
broadcast themselves to the world and
make money from it.
This began a golden age for creativity
on the internet with thousands of new
creators joining YouTube and this led to
whole new formats of video content on
the site. Pranks, comedy sketches, video
essays, vlogs, tutorials, reviews, ASMR,
animations, stunts, the list goes on.
And because YouTube allowed for more
niche content than TV, there was
something for everyone. Meanwhile,
YouTube was also making stars.
In 2007, a proud mother uploaded a video
of her son singing, who'd later be
signed by a record executive after he
found him on YouTube.
Around this time, YouTube also began to
see videos with more editing and higher
production channels emerged. KSI, MKBHD,
Ray William Johnson, Dude Perfect, Jenna
Marbles, PewDiePie, the list was
endless, and the viral videos just kept coming.
coming.
However, whilst YouTube opening
monetization to its creators had led to
all kinds of new content, it had also
caused a major problem. Since people had
realized that views equal money, YouTube
had become filled with clickbait.
Creators would lie in the title of their
videos just to get people to click, and
thumbnails of girls with low cut tops
suddenly filled the site. This would
lead YouTube to make a major change to
its algorithm.
Instead of prioritizing views, videos
would now be promoted more if they had
higher watch time. The idea was that if
someone spent a long time watching a
video, they're more likely to have
enjoyed it than if they immediately
clicked off it. This also meant people
spent more time on YouTube and saw more
ads. While some creators suffered from
this change, it also gave rise to longer
content from reaction videos to
documentaries to let's plays.
This coincided with games like Minecraft
exploding in popularity, and soon the
gaming genre of YouTube became more
popular than ever. By 2010, the world
watched more than 2 billion YouTube
videos every day. By this point, Steve
had left YouTube to become an investor,
and Chad, who was YouTube CEO from day
one, decided that it was time for him to
move on as well. Since Jav had left,
too, this meant all three of the
original YouTube founders had gone, and
things at YouTube would soon take a dark turn.
By 2014, YouTube surpassed 1 billion
active users, and YouTube even invested
100 million to make original content.
Creators continued to build strong
connections with their audience. Whether
it was through daily vlogs like Casey
Neistat and David Dori, video podcasts
like Joe Rogan and Hot Ones, or kids
reviewing toys, there were channels
where you could get your news,
education, gaming, and so much more. The
creator economy was here, where becoming
a YouTuber went from being seen as
something kind of weird to the most
desired job in the world. It was also in
2014 that Susan Wajiski was brought in
as CEO.
Susan had one main objective. Turn
YouTube into a state-of-the-art
advertising platform. And initially,
this helped everyone. As YouTube became
a better place to advertise, more
companies saw its potential to reach
their ideal customers, which meant both
YouTube and its creators made more money.
money.
YouTube reinvested that into becoming an
even better ad platform and creators
reinvested into making even better
videos. This drew in even more
advertisers and the cycle repeated.
Because of this, YouTube ads brought in
6.7 billion in 2016.
So, YouTube was becoming seriously
profitable for Google. But beneath the
surface, things weren't as perfect as
they seemed.
Mainstream companies like Apple, Nike,
and Coca-Cola are very picky about what
they associate their brands with. But
since anyone could upload pretty much
anything to YouTube, bullying, violence,
conspiracy theories, and extremism could
spread unchecked, and advertisers soon
began realizing their ads were being
displayed right next to this kind of content.
content.
Starting in 2016, some major companies
began pulling their ads from YouTube.
This was bad. So, YouTube's response was
to make their advertiser friendly
content rules stricter.
But this was a controversial decision.
Many creators suddenly found their
videos weren't earning money anymore.
And if they wanted to fit within
YouTube's new rules, they had to avoid
certain topics completely, which they
argued was the complete opposite of what
YouTube stood for. But this was just the
beginning. In February 2017, major
companies like Verizon and AT&T
complained that their ads had been
placed on videos uploaded by Islamic extremists.
extremists.
This news story went viral and suddenly
thousands of major advertisers pulled
their ads from YouTube. Journalists
realized if you just searched for any
vile videos, you'd be able to find
YouTube ads playing in front of them,
which made for a great news story.
And as a result, pretty soon almost all
of YouTube's largest advertisers were
boycotting the sites.
with far less ad money circulating
through YouTube. This meant creators
revenue dropped significantly and this
became dubbed YouTube's ad apocalypse.
YouTube was fundamentally an ad
business, but advertisers had lost faith
that YouTube could control where its ads
would run.
The problem was by this point around 400
hours of content was uploaded to YouTube
every single minute. Combing through all
of it manually to ensure it was safe for
advertisers was impossible.
So, YouTube conducted an algorithmic
blanket sweep of the entire platform to
identify inappropriate content.
Millions of videos were demonetized, age
restricted, taken down, and sometimes
even entire channels were deleted or
removed from the YouTube partner
program. And whilst this certainly
helped recover some advertisers, YouTube
made a crucial mistake, they didn't let
creators know about any of these changes.
changes.
And since the blanket sweep of YouTube's
content was done by an algorithm, lots
of videos that didn't break YouTube's
policies got flagged, and thousands of
creators previous videos simply stopped
generating revenue. Many innocent
creators found their ad revenue
basically disappeared, and some were
forced to quit YouTube.
Considering many of these creators
relied on ad revenue to pay for their
teams, their homes, and even to feed
their families, this was a dark time for YouTube.
YouTube.
So, it was hard to believe next year was
Pewdiepie, who was at the time YouTube's
most subscribed creator, came under fire
for uploading anti-semitic content.
While some would argue it was edgy jokes
taken too far, it didn't help that a
neo-Nazi website rebranded itself as the
number one PewDiePie fan site. As
mainstream media ran the story, YouTube
began to realize that negative press
surrounding its biggest stars would
impact them, too. The clearest example
of this was on December 31st, 2017, when
millions of people watched a vlog by
Logan Paul, where he and his friends
found a dead body in Japan. Due to
YouTube's algorithms, the video made it
to YouTube's trending page, which
basically meant YouTube was promoting
the video. And even though Logan chose
not to monetize it, this caused a
massive backlash.
Not just because it was disrespectful,
but the fact this type of content was
being served to a fairly young,
impressionable audience.
And around this time, advertisers and
parents concerns about YouTube's safety
for kids would be taken to a whole new level.
level.
You see, YouTube had created a YouTube
for kids app where its algorithms would
filter videos to content aimed at
children. But the problem was some
seriously disturbing videos using
popular characters like Elsa and
Spider-Man were getting hundreds of
millions of views on YouTube kids.
Whether it was Elsa giving birth or
being kidnapped, these viral clips were
often violent and nightmarish.
But the algorithms just saw kids
characters and pulled them into the
YouTube Kids app that was supposed to be
safe for children. When the news went
viral about this, the scandal became
known as Elsagate and it led to yet
another ad apocalypse as advertisers
abandoned YouTube again.
And as if this wasn't bad enough, just a
couple of years later, they would be
facing an even more disturbing scandal.
You see, children were uploading videos
like them doing gymnastics or bikini
halls where they would try on clothes,
but child predators were found
timestamping revealing frames in the
comment section. It turns out there was
an entire network of predators on these
kids videos, sharing links and timestamps.
timestamps.
When this was finally discovered,
YouTube went into crisis mode and ended
up shutting down all comments on all
kids videos.
This would have unintended consequences
where many legitimate kids channels
suffered badly as a result. And it
wasn't only kids channels who were
unhappy with YouTube. Around this time,
many political creators claimed that
YouTube was actively censoring them, and
many felt certain opinions were now
actively repressed on YouTube.
Meanwhile, YouTube had become flooded
with clips from late night shows and
traditional news networks, and some
started to feel YouTube was losing its
soul of what YouTube had once been. Not
to mention many creators still dealing
with demonetization or copyright issues.
So, basically, for a whole host of
different reasons, the sentiment towards
YouTube from its community had been
growing increasingly negative.
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Every year, YouTube released a rewind
video, basically looking back over the
past year.
And to someone not familiar with the
platform, YouTube Rewind 2018 would have
seemed like any other. But instead, the
video became the most disliked video in
YouTube history. There were many reasons
for this. Firstly, the video emphasized
old media stars like Will Smith, John
Oliver, and Trevor Noah, seemingly
focusing more on celebrities than native YouTubers.
YouTubers.
It also featured many creators who
didn't produce videos in English,
meaning many viewers had no idea who
half the people in the video even were.
The video also glossed over big moments
from the year, like beauty guru feuds or
the breakout of YouTube boxing. and
instead it felt more ad friendly and
corporate. And so the YouTube community
picked this moment to unleash their
dissatisfaction with YouTube overall.
The truth was that whilst YouTube Rewind
had started as a fun tradition, YouTube
had simply grown too big now. YouTube
was so diverse with so many different
channels that it'd be impossible to
encapsulate everyone's favorite creators
and keep everyone happy. However, the
reality is that throughout YouTube's
entire history, it's faced one big
ongoing struggle inside YouTube. They
have always described the platform as an
ecosystem with three main parties:
viewers, creators, and advertisers. They
compare it to a stall. You have to keep
all three legs equal and sturdy. But in
reality, keeping all three groups happy
is never easy.
For example, if you only show ads on
family-friendly videos, advertisers are
happy, but creators are not happy. If
you remove dislikes, advertisers and
some creators are happy, but viewers
aren't happy. Making choices that keep
everyone happy is surprisingly
difficult. And yet, YouTube needs all
three groups to survive.
So, you may think with all these
problems, YouTube would have struggled.
But weirdly, in the last few years, it's
been the total opposite. [Music]
[Music]
If you want to grow your own successful
YouTube channel, I've spent years
learning everything so you don't have
to. If you'd like to skip all the years
of mistakes and just see exactly what
actually works, check out the link in
the description to get help directly
In 2019, PewDiePie became the first
creator to hit 100 million subscribers
after an ongoing battle with T-Series.
But as for YouTube, by 2020, their own
competitor had emerged. Tik Tok became
the fastest app ever to reach a billion
users, and YouTube saw it as a genuine
threat. So, in 2021, YouTube rolled out
Shorts, their own version of Tik Tok.
And it's fair to say it worked with
Shorts views reportedly now surpassing
Tik Tok. YouTube also then identified
Twitch as a threat and started paying
streamers to come over to YouTube live.
Meanwhile, YouTube was growing rapidly
on TVs, surpassing the big streamers
like Netflix.
Somehow YouTube was competing on all
fronts and winning. With over 2 and a
half billion active users, YouTube is
the second most frequented site in the world.
world.
However, in recent years, what being a
YouTube creator actually means has
evolved again.
Instead of someone in their room talking
to a camera, YouTube creators are now
making truly insane productions. The
most obvious example is the world's new
biggest YouTuber, Mr. Beast, with
multi-million dollar videos like
recreating Squid Game in real life. And
there's been a clear shift of many
creators essentially becoming production
companies with bigger teams and bigger
budgets and even building separate
brands that can become billiondoll companies.
companies.
This has made some people feel nostalgic
for the old days of YouTube when things
seem simpler and more personal. But the
reality is you can still post more
personalized lower effort videos. And so
I think on the whole it's a good thing
that as a viewer you now have access to
higher quality content. And as a creator
it's a good thing that you can build
huge businesses through YouTube.
For me personally as a creator YouTube
has completely changed my life. The fact
I can make money creating videos about
whatever I want is crazy. And it's easy
to forget YouTube pioneered that before
other platforms.
They've made being a creator a
legitimate career path and paid out
billions to creators.
And look, YouTube has had plenty of fair
criticism against it. But you could take
away other content platforms and I don't
think it'd have much of a negative
impact on me. But I think losing YouTube
would be really sad. Many of us use it
for everything from news to
entertainment to music to instructions
to relaxation to education and so much
more. I'm not saying it's perfect, but
if you're here right now, YouTube has
probably given you a lot of joy over the
years, and the data suggests it's still
got many great years to come. So, it's
really kind of crazy to think back to
where it all started.
However, if hearing about YouTube's
history has made you want to grow your
own YouTube channel, I've made a video
explaining how YouTube is basically an
online game. And this is the strategy of
how to win and become a YouTube
millionaire. I think you'll really like
this one. So, click the thumbnail on
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