YouTube Marks Its 20th Anniversary With More Than 2.7 Billion Users and Billions of Hours of Content Viewed Each Day

What might have started as a small experiment in 2005 is now the world’s biggest video-sharing app. There are no surprises here about who we’re talking about.

YouTube is the world’s second most visited website, after Google of course. It’s marking its 20th anniversary with more than 2.7 billion users worldwide every month, not to mention billions of hours of content viewed each day.

The company’s CEO, Neal Mohan, shared more about what has changed in the past two decades. We’ve witnessed a new transformation of culture via video and also witnessed the most thriving creative space, he continued. Today, creators are moving on from simple filming of grainy content on a desktop to the most advanced studios, talk shows, and even podcasts, not to mention feature-length movies.

Today, users are not simply watching the app on their PCs or smartphones. They are watching it from the comfort of their television screens inside the living room. This is where billions of hours of video-sharing services are viewed by many in the US.

For two years, the company has been rewarded for being the number one choice for streaming in watch time. There are plenty of cultural shifts and we’ve seen the app come a long way from where it once began. The app’s impact keeps on growing as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Unlike other apps around the globe, it continues to be a part of everyday American life and global life in general. At the start, it was immensely popular with more than 65,000 video uploads and an average of nearly 100 million video views every single day within a few months.

Many people argue the app came at the right place and at the right time. It arrived right before the upcoming of the iPhone and smartphone. It similarly gave people the ability to shoot content without the use of any expensive devices and tools for editing.

You might be astonished to learn but after digging down details of its past, the app was originally set out to be a plan that started out at dinner parties. The actual idea was related to video dating websites but it didn’t work out the way it should have.

It was all set out to be for the best and the organization’s pivot made way for everything present today. It’s a giant platform that gives rise to a huge creator community. Soon, it was able to lay down the foundation of generations of content creators and models where creators could benefit from monetization.

For many, the middleman was eliminated and this allowed for direct connections with consumers. When we fast forward to the year 2025, many channels and creators evolve with time and they’re making a great impact on the industry.

A lot of the success that YouTube brings to the table is the fact that nothing is a better reflection of the real world than video. This is what got Google excited and rushing to purchase the app in 2006 and we’re sure they’re counting their lucky stars that they made the call.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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