Success stories (U24: D1)

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 YouTube is an online video and music streaming service that was bought by Google a year after its creation in 2006. YouTube has recently branched into new ways to use its service and large user base platform to compete with other media streaming companies such as Apple Music, Netflix, Spotify and most notably, Amazon Prime. The majority of YouTube's users use the website for free but in return must watch up to two advertisements on videos meaning that YouTube have ensured that they make a profit off of all of their users. The website is available to users worldwide and users have the option to make accounts by also making a gmail (Google) account ensuring synergy throughout the company. By making an account, users can subscribe to channels, like and comment on videos as well as receive recommendations from the website itself but most importantly encourage users to come back to the website. The number of devices that users with accounts (and without) can use with Youtube is uncapped.

 The majority of YouTube's content is uploaded by the users for other users, often for monetary compensation so YouTube can incentivise the people who create the content to make child friendly content without cursing or violence (this is based on the amount of views and advertisements on the video). The pay averages between $0.006 and $0.015 per page view, but it's quick and easy. YouTube shares 55% of its ad revenue with video creators and books an average of $7.60 per 1,000 ad views. That means a channel would get about $4.18 for every 1,000 views of ads shown on your videos.

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YouTube have also recently age restricted videos; cursing or excessive violence were in it meaning people with accounts that had ages under 18 can't view them. As well as this, YouTube don't promote said videos on their 'featured' page (where all of its users can see videos gaining a lot of traction due to their large amount of views) meaning that they would almost definitely get a smaller amount of views. 

 Because the revenue that broadcasters is mainly based on the amount of views that their videos get, YouTube is making it clear to its broadcasters that it won't tolerate such content because they are trying to be 'family friendly'. 

YouTube, however, have also recently started a music streaming application in an attempt to compete with companies like Spotify and Apple Music called YouTube Music. The company thought that users would be likely to switch from their accounts on the other music streaming apps to YouTube Music because, on paper, YouTube Music is superior because it offers access to media such as music videos which the other two cannot give. However, there are currently a very small number of people that use the application because YouTube overlooked the fact that the majority of users wouldn't want to switch from their music streaming service mainly because they don't want to lose their songs and playlists that they most likely spent years accumulating. Because YouTube Music's business model is similar to Spotify's and that they pay artists to put their music and videos on the service based on the amount of plays they got from the profits they made from people paying the monthly fee, YouTube Music most likely made money as their only costs included an advertisement  campaign and the making of the software.

 YouTube have also recently made a video streaming service called YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red) trying to emulate Netflix's success by making their own content in the form of TV shows and Movies. However, YouTube use the most popular broadcasters that make family friendly content on their website such as Pewdiepie and Logan Paul to make a portion of their original content. However, if said YouTubers break the YouTube code of conduct (such as the controversy Logan Paul caused in early 2018 by laughing at a corpse in Japan), they would not be allowed to make anymore content for YouTube premium. The paid subscription also includes YouTube Music most importantly no advertisements on the website's content. The lack of advertisements is the main reason why users purchase the service because the majority of the aforementioned content has been poorly received with the highest rated television show being Cobra Kai, a television sequel to the original Karate Kid trilogy (1984) which currently has 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Overall, the YouTube Premium service is profitable and most similar to that of Amazon Prime in the sense that the user gets access to the service's original content, music but instead of the delivery service, users of YouTube Premium get no advertisements on the videos they watch.
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Since 2017 the daily users of YouTube has grown from 30 million to 63 million. This huge increase of more than 100% which is most likely due to two very large factors. The first being that 6 out of 10 YouTube users saying they'd rather use YouTube for entertainment than television. Because the large role television plays (or played) in our lives and because the amount of users who used YouTube on their televisions doubled from 2017 to 2018 (mainly due to the increased number of televisions that are compatible) the overall amount of users increased tremendously. As well as this, the YouTube daily user rate has also most likely had such a large increase in size because of the overwhelming amount of people who now use YouTube on their phones has increased from 40% in 2017 to over half in 2019 (most likely due to mobile phones now getting bigger screens and becoming more compatible with YouTube). Because of the easy accessibility that users now have compared to two years ago, the viewership will likely increase because of the technology improving in both televisions and mobile phones, the rate at which people use YouTube will also most likely go up.

YouTube is available to users on Smart TVs, computers, tablets, mobile phones and essentially any device that has access to the internet. People typically watch it by using the app or on the website despite there being less reported problems such as loading issues when using the website on devices such as a mobile phone or tablet meaning users are more inclined to download the app on said devices meaning that YouTube is achieving convergence as users are then more likely to use the app again. Overall this business model has been very successful for YouTube because it ensures that all users' information from their accounts get synced regardless of what device(s) they are using just as long as their account is signed in. This method ensures that users can have access to the videos wherever and whenever they want overall increasing their user base number.

Because the majority of YouTube's content is made by consumers for consumers, the large majority of people will find content that is interesting to them. YouTube's platform also allows consumers of their content to comment their thoughts on said videos potentially putting them in direct contact with the creators of said content and in turn making a partly prosumer platform. Because consumers can subscribe to channels who's content they find enjoyable mainly due to the large increase of content over time shown through the longtail theory and could get a push notification on their device(s) if they choose to click the bell icon when subscribing, when the channel uploads, said audiences are then inclined to return to the app to watch the video meaning that YouTube have created a monopoly on video creation and consumption from its channels and viewers.
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Because YouTube already has 1.3 billion users, they don't need to advertise the website that the majority of its users already use. However, because this number of users is incredibly lower for their YouTube Premium and YouTube Music services, they advertise those. This is usually done in three separate ways.

Because channels on YouTube can have paid sponsorships from external companies as long as they include the word 'advertisement' in their video, they are allowed to influence their viewers to products and services. Despite YouTube not paying them, because some of the most successful and family friendly YouTube channels make movies and television shows on YouTube Premium, they would be inclined to promote their latest project with the corporation obviously because it brings up their star power. The same is also most likely done by YouTubers that have recently released a new song or album that would be available on YouTube Music as well as other services. Because both plugs are made by very famous YouTubers, the amount of subscriptions to YouTube Premium and therefore YouTube Music most likely goes up when said plugs are done. The corporation probably knew this before the plugs were made and so weren't inclined to make any monetary offers to the channels.

The second way how YouTube advertises YouTube Premium and therefore YouTube Music is on their own website. They do this by telling viewers of videos that they can skip through advertisements on videos if they buy the YouTube Premium monthly service. YouTube also do this by releasing a small amount of their premium content to show viewers what YouTube Premium has to offer. This also has two very important functions the first being that the content can get people who viewed onto it hooked. The second function being  that the content YouTube release for free keeps track of the amount of views they get giving them an idea of the type of demand for said content and if they should produce more. For example Cobra Kai, YouTube Premium's most successful show, released the first two episodes of its first season for free and were able to get over 60 million views for the first episode. When compared to other shows' viewing statistics, this is huge so YouTube were convinced to make a second season and are currently making a third.
Screenshot of YouTube's first episode of Cobra Kai. On said video, the tab Premium shows on the video and the sequel episodes as well as an advertisement for YouTube Premium in the top right corner telling viewers they could watch the full series.

The third way YouTube advertise is through sponsorships. The most notable being that of new Major League SOCCER team LAFC which shows the sponsorship of YouTube's newest television service YouTubeTV. This sponsorship made sense for YouTube because their new television service gave users access to all of YouTube Premium and nearly 50 television channels for $35 a month (cheaper than premium cable). However, this sponsorship was very smart from YouTube's end because among the nearly 50 channels the user could have access to are ESPN and FOX and FS1 (all needed to see all of LAFC's games). This creates a type of monopoly for YouTube and the team because fans could need YouTubeTV to see all their team's games. The more people who see the games, the more money LAFC makes. The more money LAFC makes, the more they can invest on players and therefore get more wins. The more wins LAFC gets, the more notable YouTube TV's brand goes meaning they make more money and can charge more money for sponsorships from both LAFC and other sports teams.
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One of the reasons YouTube has become so increasingly successful in the past few years is because of the increase in the number of smart TVs that are compatible with YouTube's app. Because 6/10 of YouTube's users have said to prefer YouTube to television, the increased convergence between televisions and YouTube the amount of users who used YouTube on their televisions doubled between 2017 and 2018. Along with the most recent introduction of YouTubeTV, experts predict that the number of users that have YouTube on their televisions will double again by 2020.

 YouTube, because its a video streaming application can only be played on Google Home's Hub and Amazon Echo's Show as they both have rectangular screens. However the introduction of YouTube onto these devices hasn't greatly increased the amount of users YouTube has mainly because both devices aren't portable and have less blackbox features than that of a smartphone. As well as this, the vast majority of people who have one of these devices also have a smartphone and/or tablet and/or computer which are all much better on paper for watching YouTube because they would all have a similar sized screen but would also have the luxury of being portable.
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Found on Google Images

YouTube doesn't currently have any celerities endorsing their products, however, because of the amount of subscribers they have and views they typically get, YouTube personalities themselves can easily be considered to be celebrities. As well as this, celebrities such as Jack Black and essentially every musician has their own YouTube account. Therefore if a popular YouTube personality does something positive and it is picked up by the news, YouTube is in turn shown in a positive light. However if something negative is done by a popular YouTube personality, the website is in turn shown in a negative light.

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