Digital Ethnography

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YouTube.com is just over two years old, and it is already the fourth most visited website in the world. I wanted to find out how YouTube became so immensely popular in such a short period of time. Also, I wanted to know how the three young founders of YouTube managed to turn such a simple idea into a billion-dollar company. And, finally, I wanted to know what this had to do with the users of YouTube, the people who have used the site to form a community that provides them with entertainment, friendship, and support. In searching for the answers to these questions, I learned a great deal about the history of YouTube. My video attempts to present the answers I found. I have included the script from my video here, along with references.

This is the story of YouTube

This is a story about three friends with an idea.

- Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim were employees of PayPal, and saw an opening in the market for a website where users could upload and share videos. They registered the domain name YouTube.com on February 15, 2005.

• “YouTube - The Complete Profile” http://www.rev2.org/2006/10/02/youtube-the-complete-profile/

- The first video was posted on April 23, 2005,

• “Me at the zoo” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw

- …and in May an official public beta was launched, attracting an average of 30,000 viewers per day.

• Sam McManis, Sacramento Bee, March 14, 2006

- With the promise to give out a freeiPod Nano to one random member every day until the end of the year, it’s user-base steadily grew until venture capital firms began to take notice.

• “YouTube - The Complete Profile” http://www.rev2.org/2006/10/02/youtube-the-complete-profile/
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine http://web.archive.org/web/20051201042744/http://www.youtube.com

-When Jon Stewart appeared on CNN’s Crossfire in October, more people watched the clip on YouTube than saw it on television.

• Kevin Allison, Financial Times, London, England, April 10, 2006

- In November, YouTube received $3.5 million in funding from Sequoia Capital. At this point, YouTube had over 200,000 registered users and was showing over 2 million videos per day.

• Jefferson Graham, USA Today, November 22, 2005

- After building up a strong reputation and user-base in its beta stage, YouTube.com had a staff of 20 and made its official debut on December 15, 2005.

• Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, February 3, 2006

This is a story about very big numbers.-By January, 2006, users were watching 25 million videos per day.

• Kevin Allison, Financial Times, London, England, April 10, 2006

- In March, the total number of clips available on YouTube also reached 25 million,

• Maxine Shen, New York Post, March 9, 2006

- …with users uploading 20,000 new videos a day.

• Richard Gray, Scotland on Sunday, March 19 2006

-By April, with bandwidth costs approaching $1 million per month,

• Dan Frommer, Forbes.com, April 28, 2006 http://www.forbes.com/intelligentinfrastructure/ 2006/04/27/video-youtube-myspace_cx_df_0428video.html
• Please note: Personal communication with Chad Hurley suggests that YouTube in fact had technology that allowed them to handle the great bandwidth strains comparatively cheaply.

- …YouTube gained an aditional $8 million in funding from Sequoia Capital.

• Chris Nuttall, Financial Times, London, England, April 6, 2006

- The Evolution of Dance, the most watched YouTube video of all time, was uploaded on April 06.

• “Evolution of Dance” http://youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

-In May, YouTube’s viewership surpassed that of CNN.com,

• Paul Boutin, Slate Magazine, Oct 18, 2006

- …and it was responsible for 43% of all videos viewed on the Internet.

• Steve Bryant, Google Watch, May 24, 2006 http://googlewatch.eweek.com/content/archive/ video_search_youtube_dominates_google_video_no_5.html

-On July 16, YouTube announced that users were currently viewing 100 million videos per day. The staff remained at just over 30 members.

• Reuters, USA Today, July 16, 2006 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-16-youtube- views_x.htm

- …the users of YouTube were beginning to form a cohesive community, starting online movements that spread across the web and across the globe.

• Free Hugs Campaign videos from Korea and Venezuela linked from the original at http://youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4

This is a story about money and fame.- On October 9, 2006, it was announced that YouTube was being purchased by Google for 1.65 Billion in stock.

• Google Press Center, October 9, 2006 http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/google_youtube.html

-At the time, it was the biggest purchase Google had ever made.

• David Kirkpatrick, CNNMoney.com, October 19, 2006 http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/18/technology/fastforward_gootube.fortune/index.htm

- The deal was finalized on November 13.

• Reuters, TheAge.com.au, November 14, 2006 http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/Google-closes-A2b-YouTube-deal/ 2006/11/14/1163266548827.html

- That same month, YouTube was named Time Magazine’s Invention of the Year for 2006.

• Bill Hutchinson, Daily News (New York), November 6, 2006

- It its final issue of the year, Time magazine named you, yes you, person of the year, in recognition of the importance of the user-generated content, driving sites such asYouTube.

• Lev Grossman, Time Magazine, December 13, 2006 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html

- In 2007, YouTube has become more popular than ever, but legal trouble is never far off. On March 13, Viacom sued Google for 1 billion dollars for copyright infringement. The suit is still ongoing and may have major implications for the future of YouTube.

• Anne Broache and Greg Sandoval, CNET news.com, March 13, 2007 http://news.com.com/Viacom+sues+Google+over+YouTube+clips/2100-1030_3-6166668.html

But for now, YouTube.com remains the forth most visited website in the world

• alexa.com traffic rankings, as of May 14, 2007. http://alexa.com/site/ds/top_500?qterm=

- because, most importantly, this is a story about people. Google wasn’t investing $1.65 billion dollars in the technology of YouTube, but in all the users of YouTube, a massive amount of people of all ages, from all places, who come together to share the things that make them laugh and the things that make them cry. Google wasn’t buying a company, it was buying a community: potentially millions of new users. If you are a YouTube user, Google was buying you.
- Did they get their money’s worth?
- The future history of YouTube is up to you.

• Author’s conclusion

“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” - Winston Churchill

• Internet quote database at http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/1772

Music by: David Aubrun, MEA, Omars Attacks, JCRZ.

• All music found at http://www.jamendo.com
• Creative Commons license

Created by Robert Hinderliter, Digital Ethnography at Kansas State University, Spring 2007.