Twenty years on, it’s a different story.
As a business, YouTube is nowworth some$455 billion.
That is a spectacular 275 times return on the$1.65 billionGoogle paid for it in 2006.
For the current YouTube value, Google could today buy British broadcaster ITV about 127 times.
But there are flaws, too: it has been described as aconduit for disinformationby fact checkers.
So how did all that happen?
Eight key innovations have helped YouTube achieve its success.
This incentivises creators to study the science of engagement, since it makes them more money.
MrBeasthas a teamemployed just to optimise the thumbnails for his videos.
The way we tell stories
Traditional TV ads and films start slow and build to a climax.
“I spent basically five years of my life studying virality on YouTube.”
Now there is a better option Content ID totake the moneyinstead.
How can the big, legacy media brands respond?
By meeting the audience where the viewers are, and putting their content on YouTube.
ITV is exploiting its catalogue to put old episodes ofThunderbirdson there.
Meanwhile, as of February 2025, Channel 4 also announced success in reaching young viewers via YouTube.
Full episode views were “up 169% year-on-year, surpassing 110 million organic views in the UK”.
