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YouTube Short Breakdown
Brief Overview
YouTube is an online video-sharing platform with a mission to "give everyone a voice and show them the world.


History
YouTube was co-founded by three PayPal Mafia members in 2005.
The platform released its beta on May and attracted 30k daily viewers. The official release was in December, with 2M views per day.
Google acquired it on Jan 2006 for 1.65bn and views jumped to 25M.

Business Model
Upon videos as the major foundation, the company has been multiple offerings.
It allows users to upload, view, share, rate, and comment on videos. Furthermore, people can create their own channel to which users can subscribe to.


Distribution Methods
Channel owners or 'Creators' can opt for different ways to upload content:
  • Normal videos
  • Livestreaming
  • YouTube Shorts
  • Community posts
  • YouTube Stories

In parallel, YouTube leveraged the infrastructure they have and launched YouTube TV in 2017.
This is a cloud-based paid over-the-top (OTT) internet television services and has over 70 television networks on it.


Demand for the platform
YouTube has managed to grow its user base at a 24% CAGR since 2010, going from 200M in 2010 to over 2.5bn in 2022.
According to eMarketer, YT was the second social platform in which people spent daily time on, with 45.6mins.
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Supply
Very rough estimates, but hours uploaded to the platform per minute has grown to around 500 per minute, peak at which it seems to have stalled.
YouTube channels have also grown rapidly, being around 51M in 2022, up from 35-40M in 2021
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How does it make money?
YouTube generates revenue through two major sources, which I'll detail below:
  • Advertising
  • Subscriptions

Advertising
YouTube offers brand and performance advertising by embedding advertisements on the land page, allowing sponsored videos and advertising on actual videos.
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Subscriptions
  • YouTube Music Premium allows users to access the music platform, download them and have no ads.
  • YouTube Premium has Music features but on all of YouTube.
  • YouTube TV includes access to over 100 channels and allows for 6 accounts per household.

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