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. It was acquired by Google in November, 2006.

YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video through websites, mobile devices, blogs, even email. Some of the site's features include video embedding, making videos public or private, subscribing to your favorite channels, record from webcam, and a developers area.

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.