In the last 8 years YouTube has taught us that…

A world without YouTube is nearly unthinkable and even harder to believe that it is only in existence for 8 years. The video sharing website has become a part of our lives and is growing in power and influence every day. According to the statistic page on YouTube, more than 1 billion unique visitors access the site each month. YouTube was founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim out of a garage in Menlo Park. In 2006, the three aspiring entrepreneurs sold there invention for over 1 billion dollars to search engine company Google. YouTube gives people the platform to connect, share and inform others across the globe. For the most of us YouTube offers a wide range of entertainment, ranging from top charting music videos to the outright ridiculous.

Here are a few points on what YouTube has taught us over the last 8 years:

Education: 

YouTube has become a platform for people to gather information and to educate themselves. For example, instead of looking for a recipe in a cook book, people have turned to step by step tutorials on YouTube that will give them a much easier way of cooking. Other examples include, makeup, hair and how to play an instrument tutorials. YouTube is now being used in our education system were students watch videos and can ask questions directly to the person who has made the video.

“There’s no way that online video can replace physical classrooms led by educators. But in the developing world, these resources could really be revolutionary.”

Here is a example of what type of educational videos that are been watched by students around the world.

YouTube Stars:

YouTube has changed the way in which we discover new talent in our society. With a few clicks of a button, fame might not be too far away. An example of a celebrity who was founded on YouTube is teen pop sensation Justin Bieber. Justin found fame by uploading videos to YouTube of himself performing R&B songs. At the age of 13, Justin signed a contract with Usher’s record label. Beiber became world famous with his debut single ‘baby’ reaching number one in several countries. To date it is the second most viewed video on YouTube with an astonishing 921,140,481 views.

Of course by uploading videos of yourself, you leave yourself exposed for criticism and the possibility that your video may go viral for all the wrong reasons. Unfortunately for the infamous Rebecca Black this was the case with her debut single called ‘Friday’. The singer posted her video on YouTube and became a viral hit on the video sharing site along with other social media sites. The song reached 59,734,213 views but was dubbed my music critics as the worst song ever.

YouTube and Business:

Businesses are using YouTube as a real marketing strategy. At the early stages of YouTube it was solely for the people who wanted to entertain and for so many who wanted to be entertained. It didn’t take long before businesses tapped into this and use it as a platform to promote their brand. The beauty of viral marketing is that it can last for up to four minutes where traditional marketing such as tv adverts would last for roughly 30 seconds. A prime example of a business that uses YouTube effectively to market their brand is ‘Guinness’. A major problem for businesses is the option to skip the advert to go straight to what the viewer wants to watch. The trick is to create a good enough advert that will attract the viewer into not skipping the advert. Guinness mastered this with there inspirational commercial and people find it very difficult to skip this particular ad.

In the last 8 years YouTube has taught us so much but the question is what will it teach us in the next 8 years??