Interesting Facts About YouTube You Need To Know

 

YouTube has a massive following and is extremely popular around the world, but there’s probably a lot you don’t know about it. Today, YouTube has expanded to include tutorials, reviews, videos, music videos, skits, and other content. It has so much content that it is enough to satisfy anyone’s entertainment needs. Let’s broaden your understanding of YouTube by going through some of the interesting facts about YouTube.

1. YouTube was launched on Valentine’s Day.

The domain was activated on February 14th, 2005, but the video upload feature wasn’t added until April 23 of that year. Jawed Karim, a co-founder, posted the first video a little over two months later.

2. Paypal has a long connection with YouTube.

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, the three YouTube founders, all worked for PayPal. They funded the site’s early development with money they received from eBay’s purchase of PayPal.

3. YouTube was originally a dating site.

Next on our list of interesting facts about YouTube, is something quite shocking and strange. YouTube did not start out with the same concept as it does now. According to rumours, YouTube began as a video dating site called “Tune In Hook Up,” which was modeled after the popular Hot or Not show at the time. But fate had other plans, and the three founders decided against going that route.

4. Google currently owns YouTube

In October 2006, Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube. Which, at the time, seemed like a lot of money, but now appears to be a pittance in comparison to the value of YouTube.

5.  YouTube has opened a free production space in Los Angeles.

YouTube has opened a free production space in Los Angeles, but only for those with at least 10,000 subscribers. Even those with a single subscriber can participate in classes on how to grow their channel, as well as attend comedy nights, mixers, and musical performances.

6. YouTube is banned in China, Iran, North Korea, South Sudan and Turkmenistan as of May 2022.  

YouTube’s mission to reach every household on the planet hasn’t always been smooth sailing. More than 25 countries have blocked access at various times. Germany, Finland, and Brazil are among the usual suspects, as well as some surprises. Many videos featuring copyrighted songs were unavailable in Germany due to royalties disputes between GEMA and YouTube.

7. YouTube Vs Utube

“Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment,” a manufacturer of pipes and tubing products used the domain utube.com since 1996. However, it was visited by thousands of people everyday looking for YouTube and hence its servers couldn’t handle the traffic. It had filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 for trademark infringement asking YouTube to change its domain name, however, the lawsuit was dismissed in the court. However, both the companies reached an agreement later – utube.com is now owned by Youtube and the URL redirects to the YouTube home page while ‘Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment’ changed it’s domain  name to utubeonline.com

8. YouTube has its own April’s Fools Pranks.

April Fool’s Day pranks first appeared on YouTube in 2008. The tradition continued till 2016. They once teamed up with the satirical newspaper “The Onion” to claim that the video-sharing website was launched as a contest and would soon be defunct.

9. Avril Lavigne was the first artist to reach 100 million views on YouTube.

The smash-hit by Avril Lavigne After its release in 2008, Girlfriend became the first song to reach 100 million views. The video’s popularity was questioned, with Lavigne’s public relations firm accused of manipulating the system.

10. The maximum upload limit for a YouTube video 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less. 

When YouTube first launched, there were no restrictions on the length of videos that could be uploaded. However, in 2006, the site implemented a 10-minute time limit to address issues with copyright infringement. By default, the current upload time limit on YouTube is up to 15 minutes. Verified accounts can upload videos longer than 15 minutes. However, the maximum upload limit for YouTube videos is 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.