I'm digging into YouTube's identity because it's essential to understand the impact of technology in our lives. As popular as YouTube is, the internet and its power over us is somehow still underestimated.
Let's try to convince them that YouTube is America's most important technology.
YouTube is #1 for watching videos and music
YouTube may be best known for wasting minutes at supermarket checkouts and toilets. (sorry.)
But YouTube is also the top streaming destination in America's living rooms. Nielsen data consistently shows that Americans spend more time watching YouTube on their TVs than streaming services, including Netflix.
There's no reliable data on how much time we spend streaming on TV, phones, computers, and other devices combined, but YouTube likely comes out on top on this measure as well.
YouTube TV is similar to cable TV, but is accessible over the Internet and is now one of the leading cable TV providers in the country.
When it comes to music, more people listen to songs on YouTube than on Spotify, radio, or other audio services.
In a survey conducted by Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research of people in multiple countries, nearly two-thirds of respondents watched music videos on YouTube. About 43 percent listen to music online in another way, and 31 percent use streaming music subscriptions like Spotify or Apple Music.
PS According to the Pew Research Center, YouTube is by far the most widely used social app among American adults. TikTok is not the most widely used app among teenagers. Here we are again on YouTube.
It's the healthiest economy on the internet
When you post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, or X, you're essentially creating products for those companies for free. YouTube doesn't work like that.
For every dollar advertisers pay for commercials on millions of YouTube videos, the person who created the video receives 55 cents. The rest is held by Google, which owns YouTube.
YouTube has had this financial arrangement in place for nearly 20 years. Even today, no other large-scale app offers such a consistent way for people to earn money from what they create and post online.
YouTube's innovative payment system is important to you, even if you don't make a dime by creating YouTube videos.
A healthy Internet economy, like a well-functioning U.S. economy, is one where everyone believes they have a chance to succeed. This includes you as the viewer, the people creating the information and entertainment you watch, and the companies distributing the material.
YouTube is far from perfect in this regard, but it may be the closest thing to an economically ideal online economy.
By the way, if you subscribe to YouTube Premium, which allows you to watch videos ad-free, YouTube gives a portion of the revenue to video creators based on the time you watch them.
If you watch a lot of MrBeast or Not Just Bikes videos, those YouTube channels will receive a large chunk of your subscription fee. A relatively democratic system of paying the people who make music is not how most music services like Spotify or Netflix work.
Even if Taylor Swift only listens to jazz music on Spotify, she'll still receive a hefty subscription fee.
YouTube is essential but controversial AI data fuel
You know apps are important when companies want to capture all the data they need to “train” their AI.
According to the New York Times , OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, has invented a way to siphon off more than 1 million hours of YouTube videos and podcasts and turn the spoken word into fuel for coaching AI. Google also transcribed YouTube videos to train its AI software, the Times reported.
What OpenAI did could violate YouTube's terms of service, and what Google did could violate the copyrights of people who create YouTube videos, the Times reported.
OpenAI says it uses “numerous sources, including public and private data partnerships,” and Google says its AI is trained on some YouTube material “per our agreements with YouTube creators.” reiterated the YouTube CEO's recent comments.
YouTube definitely has its flaws. It has been used to mislead and harass people and to spread propaganda. But for better or worse, YouTube is more important than you think.
