From Elephant videos to Music Videos : The expansion of Youtube (part 1 of the series)
Saturday, September 21, 2013
The media website Youtube
has allowed cat-lovers, pranksters, adventure junkies and artists like me to
freely post videos on the internet instantaneously for thousands of people from
around the world. Youtube was formed in February
of 2005 by three men, one of which attended the same high school that I
recently graduated from in Minnesota. PayPal
alums Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Kari created the video site, which now
has more than 1 billion unique users each month. The first video uploaded was a 12 second clip
of an elephant from the San Diego Zoo. Now in 2013, 100 hours of video are
uploaded to Youtube every minute. Bought by Google in 2007, the site has become
known world-wide as THE site for finding video clips. This expansion explains
how my videos have reached the UK, Germany and Russia. YouTube statistics say that 70% of viewers
come from outside of the US. This
is due to the localization of YouTube in 56 countries and 61 language options.
This allows people to not only watch videos, but to connect with the people of
the same interests around the world.
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| Rebecca Black is just one example of how a YouTube video went viral |
This
act of connecting with others of the same interests has led to YouTube
conventions around the world happening year round. VidCon, known as the world’s largest YouTube convention held in
Anaheim California, is not only for enthusiasts is both a convention and
concert series. Created by John and Hank Green (known on the media site as the
Vlog brothers) they aimed to create a place where lovers and video stars could
share ideas with one another as well as watch the hottest acts on the internet perform.
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| Lucas Cruikshank in his third franchised movie produced my Nickelodeon |
It’s this act of combining forces that has made average Joe’s
who once were recording in their bedrooms to sensations filling amphitheaters, shopping
malls, appearing on national TV and creating blockbuster movies. Stars such Justin
Bieber, Lucas Cruikshank (a.k.a. Fred), Beauty gurus Blair and Elle Fowler and Jenna
Marbles were discovered right on the website and become virtually (no pun
intended) superstars overnight. YouTube has given people like me the opportunity
to post videos of my liking and see what how endless the possibilities are.
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| VidCon promotion |
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