James's Youtube Of The Week - Ep5 - Youtube for Dummies

This week, CGP Grey does it again with an explanation of how Youtube works as a business.

Back in the 90's when downloading a 30 second video took forever on a 56k dial-up connection, a friend explained that with the current bandwidth of the USA the fastest way to get video across the states was to fill up a station wagon with VHS tapes and drive it there. No one at the time thought that streaming video would really ever be a "thing".

Today users are uploading 65 years worth of content to You Tube every day. The service has evolved from a purely free, social experiment to having a sophisticated advertising-driven and subscription based business models that appeal to a broad range of users and advertisers across every demographic with a global reach.

For anyone who is considering whether to become a professional Youtuber, or for Friends, Family or Fools who are being asked for startup funding by a wannabe Youtuber this video is essential viewing:

One of the neat tricks that CGP Grey has done here is to periodically automatically update the title of the video with auction results. When the clip was launched a few weeks ago - it was only a few dollars but the value has subsequently increased ($2,573 at the time of writing) which demonstrates that the Youtube marketplace has determined that the value of the content has increased over time, reflecting that its content has appeal to a wide wide audience - and advertisers who wish to reach that audience.

Enjoy!