A little more than a year ago it did not exist. Today it is viewed more than 100-million times a day and has become one of the most spectacular success stories of the internet in recent years.
But the dazzling influence of the video filesharing website YouTube.com may have only just begun, after the site announced plans that observers say could revolutionise the music industry and threaten even the online music giant iTunes.
YouTube’s popularity has been based on the facility it offers users to post short home videos, usually of about five minutes, on the site, which other users can view, link to and share.
On Thursday, it declared its intention to become a mainstream entertainment player, announcing plans to post on its site a copy of every single music video ever made. Like the rest of its content, they would be free to view and download. It is that innovation that net watchers say could threaten Apple’s iTunes service, which charges users to download videos.
”What we really want to do is in six to 12 months, maybe 18 months, to have every music video ever created up on YouTube,” said Steve Chen, one of the site’s founders. ”We’re trying to bring in as much of this content as we can on to the site.” Revenue will come from advertising rather than user payments.
According to Mark Mulligan, vice-president of Jupiter Research, that could be bad news for Apple — affecting iTunes and, potentially, its iPod products.
”Any service that YouTube puts in place is, almost beyond reasonable doubt, not going to be iPod compatible,” he said. ”If they develop portability — and that should definitely be on the table — then Apple could be in the unusual space of playing catch-up.” YouTube is already in discussions with Warner Music and EMI about its free download service.
YouTube was founded in 2005 by Chen and Chad Hurley, former employees of the internet payment service PayPal, who wanted to develop a way to upload videos they had taken at a dinner party. It quickly became a word-of-mouth phenomenon, with teenagers posting TV clips, bloopers and short home movies.
The site has proved unequalled in its ability to create instant and unlikely internet heroes. This week a 79-year-old widower from central England became the latest global YouTube star.
The man, calling himself Peter, or ”geriatric1927”, shot to the top of the site’s most-subscribed list after posting six videos in which he shares his views on modern life. ”[YouTube] is a fascinating place to go to see all the wonderful videos that you young people have produced,” his first effort begins, ”so I thought I would have a go at doing one myself.” — Guardian Unlimited Â