Did you hear? YouTube is celebrating five years of dominating the world of online video.
Yes, the company is milking this for all it’s worth, but the extended celebration makes sense: YouTube was founded in February 2005, got their initial big funding in November of that year (from Sequoia Capital, as an FYI to all those start-up folks out there), then “officially” launched in December.
…And ever since has been the premier resource and destination for uploading and sharing video clips online.
- Quick fact 1: Five years in, visitors log 2 billion views a day. That’s billion with a “b”. Every single day.
- Quick fact 2: For every minute that passes, YouTube users load 24 hours worth of video. That’s up from 15 hours of video every minute as of last year. So all this uploading is feeding the viewing, and all that viewing is feeding this uploading.
To celebrate these acheivements, YouTube is sharing the fun with the world. They’ve set up the “YouTube Five Year Channel“ and have invited, well, everyone — including you and me — to join in.
That doesn’t mean you can upload just anything and expect it to get posted; but it does mean there are some really interesting, insightful, funny and touching videos already up, posted by regular people sharing stories about how YouTube has affected their lives.
It’s not just regular users, though. The company has savvily invited celebrities to curate their favorite clips.
This effort is more than just puffery; you can watch his intro below, then check out what Conan O’Brien likes:
And on the higher-art side, here’s some commentary by Spanish director Pedro Almovodar describing his list:
James Hyatt 