video

What is video? Visual images displayed by a device (like a TV) as opposed to audio signals transmitted by a device (like a radio). Streaming videos on the Web are popular because they are cheap, easy to make and easy to embed which makes it easy to distribute on other Web pages, blogs, and social media sites... where the goal of many users is to "go viral." 

Historical perspective: YouTube was founded in February 2005, and is the world's most popular online video community, allowing millions of people to watch and share user-generated videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect and inform others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. Founded by Jawed Karim, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, it was acquired by Google in November, 2006 for $1.65 billion. 

As of June, 2011, each month YouTube users all over the world collectively spend some 2.9 billion hours--that's 331,050 years, if you're wondering--on the site. More video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the three major U.S. networks created in 60 years. By 2018, the online video portal's US net advertising revenues reached $3.96 billion US dollars, up from $2.24 billion US dollars in 2015. 

The first video ever uploaded to YouTube was a 19-second clip called "Meet Me at the Zoo" in 2005. A mere 20 years later in 2025, YouTube was bigger than Disney with a worth between $475 billion and $550 billion, whereas Disney’s market capitalization, by comparison, was $163 billion. With 12 percent of all U.S. TV viewership, YouTube owned a bigger piece of viewers’ attention than Disney, Fox, or Netflix.