And that’s a problem, according to experts, given the platform’s massive global reach and influence.
They developed a program that essentially “guesses” random video URLs until it stumbles upon legitimate uploads.
The program, which is essentially a scraper, randomly generates these character strings and checks for matches.
Essentially, it “drunk dials” the platform to see if a video exists.
This translates to approximately 1.87 billion failed attempts for every successful find.
The production values are also remarkably modest.
Only 14% of videos feature a professional set or background.
Just 38% show signs of editing.
More than half have shaky camerawork, and audio quality varies widely in 85% of videos.
In fact, 40% are simply music tracks with no voice-over.
Graph by University of Massachusetts at Amherst, BBC.
These numbers paint a very different picture from how YouTube portrays itself.
Only 4% had common calls to action such as liking, commenting, and subscribing.
