YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries.
YouTube, LLC
The YouTube logo is made of a red round-rectangular box with a white "play" button inside and the word "YouTube" written in black.
Screenshot
YouTube homepage.png
Type of business Subsidiary
Type of site
Video hosting service
Founded February 14, 2005; 12 years ago
Headquarters 901 Cherry Avenue, San Bruno, California, United States
Coordinates 37°37′41″N 122°25′35″W
Area served Worldwide (except blocked countries)
Owner Alphabet Inc.
Founder(s)
Steve Chen
Chad Hurley
Jawed Karim
CEO Susan Wojcicki (CEO)
Key people Susan Wojcicki (CEO)
Chad Hurley (Adviser)
Industry Internet
Video hosting service
Parent Google (2006–present)
Slogan(s) Broadcast Yourself (2005–2012)
Website YouTube.com
(see list of localized domain names)
Alexa rank Steady 2 (Global, November 2017)[1]
Advertising Google AdSense
Registration Optional (not required to watch most videos; required for certain tasks such as uploading videos, viewing flagged (18+) videos, creating playlists, liking or disliking videos and posting comments)
Launched February 14, 2005; 12 years ago
Current status Active
Content license
Uploader holds copyright (standard license); Creative Commons can be selected.
Written in JavaScript, C, C++, Python,[2] Java,[3][4] Go[5]
YouTube allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to favorites, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users. It offers a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos. Available content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, short and documentary films, audio recordings, movie trailers, live streams, and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. Most of the content on YouTube is uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, and Hulu offer some of their material via YouTube as part of the YouTube partnership program. Unregistered users can only watch videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos and add comments to videos. Videos deemed potentially inappropriate are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old.
YouTube earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according to site content and audience. The vast majority of its videos are free to view, but there are exceptions, including subscription-based premium channels, film rentals, as well as YouTube Red, a subscription service offering ad-free access to the website and access to exclusive content made in partnership with existing users. As of February 2017, there are more than 400 hours of content uploaded to YouTube each minute, and one billion hours of content are watched on YouTube every day. As of August 2017, the website is ranked as the second-most popular site in the world by Alexa Internet, a web traffic analysis company.[1]
