YouTube is now the home of one billion monthly visitors. Funny videos, tutorials, highly touted documentaries, music videos — pretty much every type of video a user could want — can be found on the social video website.
The networks incredible growth is thanks in no small part to its availability on a myriad of devices from mobile devices and tablets to computers and smart TVs.
YouTube has also benefited from the meteoric rise of superstar internet personalities who got their start by posting silly, retrospective, and various other types of videos on the network.
YouTube posted the following message about its milestone:
“In the last eight years you’ve come to YouTube to watch, share and fall in love with videos from all over the world. Tens of thousands of partners have created channels that have found and built businesses for passionate, engaged audiences. Advertisers have taken notice: all of the Ad Age Top 100 brands are now running campaigns on YouTube. And today, we’re announcing a new milestone: YouTube now has more than a billion unique users every single month.”
The video network also took the time to break down what 1 billion monthly visitors looks like:
– Nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube. – Our monthly viewership is the equivalent of roughly ten Super Bowl audiences. – If YouTube were a country, we’d be the third largest in the world after China and India. – PSY and Madonna would have to repeat their Madison Square Garden performance in front of a packed house 200,000 more times. That’s a lot of Gangnam Style!
When Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion, the young social video platform was still attempting to find its footing and turn a profit. Google’s big acquisition spend is no longer questioned by analysts and has largely been hailed as one of silicon valley’s most heralded acquisitions.
It’s still hard to believe that the first YouTube video was uploaded at 8:27 pm on Saturday April 23rd, 2005 by Yakov Lapitsky after his trip to the San Diego Zoo.
This simple 0:18 second clip helped launch a multi-billion dollar business:
