Music Business

YouTube Is Now 9 Years Old

image from 1.bp.blogspot.comIt's almost hard to believe, but YouTube turned 9 years old yesterday.  First launched a dating site called "Tune In Hook Up" modeled after "Hot or Not," the online video giant eventually caught on with an audience eager to share everything for their cat to a cell phone video of their favorite band.  YouTube has also become the world's favorite free streaming music site, paving the way for Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, et al.

Latest Stats & YouTube's First Video

YouTube Viewership Stats:

  • 9More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
  • Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube – almost an hour for every person on Earth
  • 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • 80% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
  • YouTube is localized in 61 countries and across 61 languages
  • According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network
  • Millions of subscriptions happen each day.
  • The number of people subscribing daily is up more than 3x since last year, and the number of daily subscriptions is up more than 4x since last year

Watch the first video on YouTube, uploaded at 8:27 P.M. on Saturday April 23rd, 2005. The video was shot by co-founder Yakov Lapitsky at the San Diego Zoo.

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