Social networks like Facebook and Instagram may be moving towards better video platforms, but we all know who the real OG is in this arena: YouTube. According to the Alexa ranking, YouTube is the second most visited website in the world, behind Google, which owns the platform.
Given its level of popularity as a video sharing platform - where users upload, watch, comment and share content - it's no surprise that you can use Youtube to watch anything from some guy tripping over seeing a double rainbow to the latest music by Nicki Minaj. video.
YouTube data mining statistics
YouTube is available in more than 100 countries and supports 80 languages, which is not surprising considering that in 2020 YouTube has more than 2 billion users. This corresponds to approximately one third of all internet users. These are definitely Youtube stats worth paying attention to!
It turns out that YouTube users are predominantly male, making up 62% of YouTube's user base. The majority of all users end up in the 25 to 44 age group, 23% in the 25 to 34 age group, and 26% in the 35 to 44 age group. group.
Percentage of YouTube users by age
Percentage of YouTube users by age (Image source: MarketingProfs)
If we open up that age range a bit more, 18 to 49, it turns out that 80% of that age group watches YouTube in a given month.
On mobile alone, YouTube reaches more 18- to 49-year-olds than cable TV.
What are YouTube users doing?
YouTubers mostly do what you would expect them to do, watch an insane amount of video content and upload an insane amount of video content.
More than 500 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and more than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos are viewed daily. More than half of those views come from mobile devices, with users spending more than an hour a day watching YouTube videos on their mobile devices alone. 2018 saw the fastest growth in YouTube viewership in the previous two years, with the number of hours people spent watching videos on YouTube increasing by 60% year-on-year.
statistics on youtube
YouTube Stats (image source: YouTube)
In 2011, it was estimated that 99% of YouTube views came from just 30% of videos, meaning the social media giant relied on a select few content producers to provide the vast majority of traffic. However, this revelation doesn't seem to have done much to deter your average YouTuber from uploading content.
Facts about YouTube finance
YouTube became Google's second-largest acquisition in 2006, when the tech giant bought the video content platform for $1.65 billion. At the time, the price tag raised eyebrows, and more than a few analysts agreed that Google was crazy to make the purchase. That is, of course, until Facebook made a move to acquire Instagram for a similar price tag.
As The Ringer wrote in 2016,
A decade later, however, the YouTube purchase is widely regarded as one of the best consumer technology acquisitions ever.
Although Bank of America Merrill Lynch valued YouTube at $70 billion or more in 2016, there is uncertainty about the company's profit level. Mahaney wrote in a research note last year,
Alphabet doesn't disclose how much money YouTube makes, but RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney estimates that YouTube's revenue has reached $10 billion a year and is growing at up to 40% annually. This growth makes YouTube “one of the strongest assets on the Internet today.
The problem YouTube faces is that it is an expensive operation due to content fees, huge bandwidth, storage and processing costs.
YouTube is known to be strict when it comes to copyright infringement and often removes videos that violate copyright law (eg DMCA violations for using unlicensed music). To support intellectual property, YouTube has paid out $2 billion to rights holders since 2007.
Advertising on YouTube
The first ads on YouTube launched in August 2007. However, when it comes to ad revenue, YouTube is exceptionally secretive about its numbers. Nevertheless, a business analyst estimates that YouTube will earn $15 billion in ad revenue in 2018. YouTube is also estimated to account for about 6 percent of Google's ad revenue.
YouTube caters to content creators
Unlike Snapchat, which many say doesn't pay enough attention to its influencers, YouTube is very particular about content creators and their fans. They understand that the majority of views come from a minority of content creators, so they try to take care of those creators as best they can.
These YouTube stats dive deep into the platform's most popular creators:
One such content creator is video game commentator PewDiePie, who has the most subscribers on YouTube at 64.7 million. You may recognize his name as the center of a recent controversy that caused Youtube to cut ties with him for content co-production, but not cut PewDiePie off from earning ad revenue from his channel.
Another controversial YouTube star is Logan Paul, who fell from grace after sharing a video of a dead body in Japan's infamous Aokigahara suicide forest. Although YouTube has come out against him and promised harsh consequences, Logan Paul is still active on the platform and earns ad revenue from his videos.
Situations like these raise the question of whether YouTube is complicit in the actions of creators on the platform by continuing to allow them to monetize everything they share publicly — but tbut that's a discussion for another article.
The highest-paid YouTuber, also a video game commentator, is Dan Middleton (DanTDM), who earned $16.5 million in 2017. Due to his success as a YouTuber, he had a world tour that included four sold out nights in Sydney. Opera house. And he's not the only one in the house who takes video games seriously. His wife is JemPlaysMC, a popular YouTube Minecraft commentator.
Now, if you're old enough to read this and don't earn a seven-figure salary, you might want to skip another YouTube stat for its jealousy-inducing qualities: The youngest YouTube star is 6-year-old Ryan ToysReview, who earned $11 million in 2017.
Ryan Toys Review
Ryan Toys Review
While there are plenty of YouTube stars making millions, content is also produced by about 9% of small businesses in the US, with varying degrees of success. Larger companies, unsurprisingly, also produce a huge amount of content on YouTube. In fact, LEGO is the most popular YouTube brand channel with over 7.8 billion views and 5 million subscribers.
Youtube is also a great place to learn more about WordPress!
Monetization options for YouTube content creators
Since 2017, the number of YouTube content creators earning five figures per year has increased by 35% and those earning six figures per year has increased by 40%, with the majority of this money coming from advertising.
One of the recent ways YouTube has been helping its top content creators monetize their channels and videos has been through the introduction of a feature called Superchat. This feature allows fans to buy messages that will stand out in a live chat session.