By Daniela Rodriguez

Courtesy of YouTube [1]

Salar Kamangar–Courtesy of Google+ [3]

CEO of YouTube
Senior Vice President of Video at Google [4]

ABOUT YOUTUBE

YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005 by three PayPal employees. It was not until late 2006 that Google Inc. acquired YouTube as a subsidiary for $1.65 billion. [5] The company today has changed its focus to become more like a Television/Web channel and it has implemented some of Google’s strategies, which will be explained later in the profile.

YouTube in essence is a video-sharing website that allows billions of people around the world to watch, find and share originally-created videos. The website allows people to connect through forums and inspires others to share their voice. [6] In order to make video sharing possible, the website uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 Technology to display its wide variety of videos. These videos include, movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as, amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos and educational videos. YouTube and other networks, such as, CBS, BBC, Vevo and Hulu, have a partnership where these networks offer some of their content via YouTube. [7] This partner program has allowed thousands of channels to increase their profits by making at least six figures a year solely through their YouTube channel. [8]

YouTube is localized in 56 countries and across 61 languages, accounting for 70% of the website’s traffic. The company mainly targets young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 [8], and 65% of its viewers are males [9]. Statistics also depict that more than one billion users visit YouTube each month, over six billion hours of video are watched each month, and 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. [8]

YouTube’s omnipresence in every platform has caught advertisers’ attention. Thousands of advertisers are using TrueView in-stream ads and more than a million advertisers are currently using Google ad enterprises; mostly small businesses. [8] YouTube becomes a shared experience where voices are heard, communities are created and creators are born. One of the many talents that was discovered on YouTube was Justin Bieber, who now, is famous around the world. Their slogan “Learn. Share. Create” accurately defines and depicts users’s expectations through the accessibility and user-friendliness it provides them. [10]

Courtesy of YouTube [10]

FINANCIALS

The owner of YouTube, Google Inc., reported a steady rise in their financials from previous years. As of November 2013, Google Inc. stock is priced at $1,029.20. When Google first went public in August 2004, the company IPO was set at $85 per share. The company reported a gross income of $29.45 billion last year and a  net income of $10.79 billion. It could be assumed therefore, that acquisition of companies, such as YouTube, have had a gigantic influence in Google’s current financials. [11] [12]

GOOGLE+ INTEGRATION WITH YOUTUBE

The addition of YouTube to Google’s family in 2006 was believed to be an extraordinary idea at the time. This year, however, many commenters are angry with the idea of YouTube being a subsidiary of Google Inc. because Google is changing and forcing YouTube to change its business model. This is because Google is attempting to use YouTube as a medium to advertise its products. [13]

Courtesy of Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images  [15]

Google Inc. is known for its technological innovations. One of these creations was Google+ — Google’s social media. Since its creation, Google+ has been unsuccessful in competing with social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram. This is the reason why Google is trying to make Google+ become YouTube’s problem. Last week YouTube forced its users to create a Google+ account in order to allow them to comment on a video, which links a Youtube account to an actual identity. [14] More than 30,000 people complained on YouTube’s blog post about the new change. There are also a variety of Change.org petitions asking YouTube to revert to its old practices. The most popular petition has more than 50,000 supporters. [15]

According to many, what Google is forcing YouTube to do is violating YouTube users’ privacy. However, according to Google, this new implementation was to cease the anonymous venom that many were leaving on YouTube’s website. [13] Also, with the new system, content creators will be able to have more control when it comes to monitoring the comments on their videos. This technique will allow negative comments to sink to the bottom and as a result, positive opinions will be most visible. [15]

This is not the first controversy that YouTube has been involved with. According to Change.org, YouTube is the fourth most petitioned company after Facebook, Walmart and Apple. [15]

APP INOVATION- YOUTUBE CAPTURE

YouTube is currently trying to capture the iOS system, which will allow users to film, edit and rearrange multiple recordings into a single video. [16] This new offering will permit YouTube users to create videos similar to Instagram and Vine. YouTube will allow people to record as many clips as they want, with no time restriction to upload — differentiating itself from what its competitors are offering. [17]

Courtesy of YouTube Capture [18]

The app offers the simplest way to record videos. One needs to just tap and hold the red button displayed on the screen to record a video. When the video is finished, a bubble in the right-hand corner will bounce depicting that your video has been saved. Once the bubble is tapped, editing tools will be displayed on the screen with the selected video. To add other videos, one must tap the plus symbol on the bottom right-hand corner and select the clip they want to add. [16]

To go back and watch the video frame-by-frame the user must tap each thumbnail clip. This will allow the user to trim each shot by dragging the sliders on either side of the screen. When finished, the user can also add music from their own library or choose from YouTube’s expanded library. These unique aspects of YouTube’s video innovation will allow users to have a better video-recording experience. [16]

Once the video is done being edited, the user can upload the project to the YouTube channel and share it with friends on social media sites such as, Google +, Facebook and Twitter. [17]

NIELSEN, COMSCORE AND GOOGLE

According to telecom equipment company Sandvine, Netflix and YouTube account for 50 percent of all data transferred on fixed broadband networks in the U.S. On November 12th of this year, Google announced that Nielsen will be in charge of measuring YouTube’s ratings in 2014. [19]

Even though Google has its own system to measure what consumers watch and buy, the company decided to partner up with Nielsen and analytics company comScore to receive an objective third-party opinion.  Google’s partnership with these two companies could give Google a revenue boost by allowing Google to diversify its products. As a result, this would attract more people and a more diverse set of marketers. [19]

Courtesy of REELSEO [20]

WORKS CITED-

[1]  YouTube’s Logo Picture
[2]    YouTube- Contact Us
[3]    Salar Kamangar’s Headshot
[4]    CEO of YouTube- Salar Kamangar
[5]    YouTube- Information
[6]  YouTube- About
[7]  Social Media and Sites
[8]    YouTube- Statistics
[9]    YouTube- Demographic Report
[10]    The YouTube Community
[11] Google Inc. Income Statement
[12] CNN Money- Google Goes Low
[13]  Google’s recent YouTube fiasco isn’t just about privacy
[14]    Google’s Relentless Campaign to Make Google+ Work Becomes YouTube’s Problem
[15]    YouTube faces backlash for Google+ integration
[16]  YouTube Capture for iOS now lets you record, edit and rearrange multiple clips into a single video
[17]  YouTube- Capture
[18]  YouTube Capture Picture
[19]  Nilsen Will Measure Google’s YouTube in 2014
[20]  Partnership of Google, Nielsen and conScore Picture