Best & Worst Case Scenario

In conclusion, after going through the history, the ease of online democratization, monetary benefits, features and time related factors of YouTube, we can now talk about the best and worst case scenarios. Also, since this analysis of pros and cons will be reflecting back on previously mentioned stats and facts, there might be reiteration of information.



Best Part of YouTube: 

• It can literally take one from rags to riches: As we have seen in previous examples many common people became stars by making YouTube videos from their just rooms, without the necessity of expensive studio, camera and editing setup. The presence of an expensive setup is definitely beneficial, but many have become successful by using just a smartphone camera and a laptop for editing.  
• Failure is not too expensive: Even if one fails at their attempt, they are least likely to face any kind of financial damage. In other words, since one does not need money to start their YouTube career (excluding the cost of an expensive studio setup - because that is not mandatory), they don’t lose money if that potential career fails midway. This makes YouTube an amazing ‘startup’ option for young people (especially students) to try out. As we know, young people are mostly low to no income earners and are usually financially dependent on their parents/guardians. So, they would especially find it very difficult to arrange investments/capital if they were planning for any other type of startup, as almost all other startups require at least a minimum beginning capital.

Worst Case Scenario:

• One might not have enough viewers and subscribers and might fail at their dream of becoming a YouTuber. Essentially, the user would lose all the valuable time and energy that they invested, or in this case, "wasted" in this platform. So, their opportunity cost in this startup would only be the amount of time and energy that they spent for being committed to YouTube, and could have used in pursuing something else.

Citations:

Schofield, J. (2016, September 29). What sort of equipment do I need for making YouTube videos? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2016/sep/29/what-sort-of-equipment-do-i-need-for-making-youtube-videos

YouTube Needs Time

Time Consuming... 

Previously I mentioned that going viral and becoming famous through YouTube is easy and can be quick. But in all honesty, that requires a lot of luck along with hard-work and talent. YouTube did give some users a comparative “quick fame”, but that might not be the case for everyone. As we know it, luck does not favour everyone in the same way and not everyone has the privilege of being at the right place/platform at the right time, in the right and most appropriate manner. Along with the luck factor, there are some other data related matters to consider. From personal experience, I can say that the data and analytics provided by YouTube’s channel dashboard might not always prove to be very useful. The data provided by YouTube does not really help one to find out the specifics like what age group and gender watches their videos, or what is the audience’s preference? In other words, as the data provided by YouTube is pretty unstructured, it can be hard to derive appropriate and relevant information and demographics, which in turn would make it time consuming to understand the audience’s needs and wants. And this would make it harder for the uploader to cater to the specific expectations of their main viewers. Therefore, YouTube can be quite time consuming. 



Consistency & Commitment = Success

A lot of today’s famous YouTubers, became who they are because they were patient and remained consistent and committed to their job. Famous YouTuber and food blogger Mark Wiens, started uploading food and travel videos approximately 10 years back, and today he is one of the richest food bloggers with over 3 million subscribers. He even has his own brand, where he features his YouTube videos. Click to visit Mark's website.



Citations:

P2, S. (2017, July 24). P2 Server. Retrieved from https://www.p2energysolutions.com/p2-server

Patel, N. (2016, January 22). The Complete Guide to Building a Successful YouTube Channel. Retrieved from https://www.quicksprout.com/2016/01/22/the-complete-guide-to-building-a-successful-youtube-channel/

Wiens, M. (2019). Mark Wiens. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/migrationology

Financial Factors

YouTube is completely FREE to upload and watch. 

Among many other online platforms, YouTube is an extremely useful platform that enables its users to monetize their videos and start earning through advertisement revenues, but it does not charge its users a single penny for this service. Adding to the list of features, is the compatibility of YouTube with all sorts of devices and operating systems. Be it old or new, expensive or low to medium priced devices, Windows, Android, iOS, or even Linux, YouTube works everywhere. And due to this convenience of usage, along with the monetary benefits, YouTube has such a large user base as featured on the following graph. 

E

Earning Potential for General Public

In addition, YouTube also allows paid partnerships with brands, product placements and other types of endorsements. In simple words, if one wants to launch a product or has a startup idea in mind, they can use YouTube to pitch it, which in turn might become a good source of income. This feature of YouTube makes it a primary choice for many corporates and even academic institutions. Recently, the official YouTube account of Samsung uploaded a video to introduce their new Galaxy S10. This video will not just benefit the company (sellers) and the customers, but will also be beneficial for technological experts like UrAvgConsumer, who will review this video and share their opinions about the product on YouTube for people to use as reference while making a purchase decision. This way, people on various levels and industries are making a living out of YouTube. Schools and post-secondary institutions are often seen using YouTube to upload or have their students individually post videos for competitions. For example, a contest held by the Ontario government for school going students encourages them to upload videos explaining safety on job. Click here to view the contest. These were the ways as to how the general public can earn using YouTube. 



How YouTube Earns?

How does YouTube earn its revenues, given the fact that it does not ask the public for any money? 

YouTube actually earns through advertisements. It sells its humongous user base to companies, who in turn pay YouTube to advertise on their videos. And YouTube just shares a percentage of this payment with the uploader of the video. In addition, there is another version of YouTube. It is the premium edition, called YouTube Red that earns through its subscriptions. YouTube Red offers special benefits to its premium users by asking for a small membership fee.



Citations:

Dutta, A. (2017, November 21). YouTube Business Model | How does YouTube make money? Retrieved from https://www.feedough.com/youtube-business-model-how-does-youtube-make-money/

Feldman, S., & Richter, F. (2019, February 21). Infographic: Where Online Content Creators Make Money. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/chart/17114/online-content-creation-earnings/

Samsung. (2019, February 20). Galaxy S10: Official Introduction. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCfgkIyD9g0

Online Democratization

Common + Talented = Stars

In the previous post, I mentioned examples of making it big on YouTube. All of those YouTube stars had one thing in common: before becoming popular, they were all common people, doing common things, living a common life just just like us, and did not have any celebrity background or did not belong to any particular star family. This is a very special attribute of not just YouTube, but any social media platform on the world wide web. The development of the internet and social media had essentially helped eradicate the fine, invisible line between people of different status and position in the society, hence leading to the concept of “online democracy”. From the perspective of equality and same rights for everyone, social media is a place where every human being is equal, and can get their hands on equal amount of spotlight to share their viewpoints, opinions, and have their voices heard around the entire world, only if they have the talent and patience.

Going Viral

It is seen that growth rate amongst common people is at a peak in this day and age, because everyone has complete access to almost all kinds of virtual resources, including information, networks, opportunities, sources, communication platforms and sharing features etc., all with the help of the internet. To go further ahead into an analysis, today it is much easier to reach out to the world, than it was 20 years ago. Our previous generations had to work much harder, because they did not have the means and technology to help them. They required much more physical labour to reach a certain stage, which can be attained much easily today. For instance, let’s consider the amount of struggle and rejection J. K. Rownling, the author of Harry Potter, had to face, to finally become a renowned author. The Harry Potter series that is so famous today, and holds such a special place in the lives of the millennial generation, was rejected 12 times before it finally got published as a book. While it cannot be stated for sure, an inference could still be made, that had social media been so powerful during her times, she probably would not face as much rejection. She might as well be able to reach out to her audience and gain feedback and fame, along her journey of contacting publishers and becoming an author. Going back to the Justin Bieber example, if the social media site, YouTube did not exist, there probably wouldn’t be a famous Justin Bieber either, because, as mentioned in the previous post, he was also “discovered” on YouTube, by an executive of a famous media group - So So Def Recordings. Hypothetically, Justin Bieber would probably come into spotlight more easily today, than he did back in 2009. This brings me to the concept of getting “viral”. With YouTube and other social media sites, reaching the screens of millions of people worldwide within minutes, is so easy, that it has now become a trend.


Citations:

Bhargava, J., & Klat, A. (2017, January 05). Content democratization: How the Internet is fueling the growth of creative economies. Retrieved from https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/reports/content-democratization

Dawn, R. (2017, October 20). J.K. Rowling's original 'Harry Potter' pitch was rejected 12 times - see it in new exhibit. Retrieved from https://www.today.com/popculture/j-k-rowling-s-original-harry-potter-pitch-was-rejected-t117763

Kirkhope, T. (2012, December 12). How the internet is transforming democracy. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/how-the-internet-is-transforming-democracy-8411474.html

Press, A. (2011, April 04). J.K. Rowling looking into Harry Potter e-books. Retrieved from http://blog.syracuse.com/entertainment/2011/04/jk_rowling_looking_into_harry.html

Srinivasan, A., Dulay, P., Bindal, G., Koropenko, O., Arora, Y., Foster, H., . . . Frances, J. (2018, August 29). Social Media Gives Everyone a Voice – Including the Crazies. Retrieved from https://socialnomics.net/2018/09/03/social-media-gives-everyone-a-voice-including-the-crazies/

History of YouTube

The Beginning

The amazing video sharing platform, YouTube, was originally created as a dating site, by current PayPal employees - Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, on February 2005. It looked pretty simple when it was first launched. It was purchased by Google on November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, when YouTube was still just another ordinary startup, unknown to the masses. Google’s visionary approach at taking over YouTube just one year after its initial launch, is now considered to be a very profitable decision, especially because now YouTube is the 2nd most visited website in the world, the first being Google. Ineffectively, both the first and second most visited sites belong to Google. Since YouTube is so popular among the global population, it won’t be wrong to state that there are probably very few people left in the world that do not know about or haven’t yet heard of YouTube.

First YouTube Video Ever

The first ever video uploaded to YouTube was titled “Me at the zoo”. It was uploaded by one of the creators, Jawed Karim, on April 23, 2005, under his personal account - “jawed”. Initially, people did not seem to care about “Me at the zoo” being the first ever YouTube video, until the value of this platform gradually increased among people and the general population started looking at the different ways YouTube could be used to their own benefits, for maybe showcasing themselves to the world and/or earning fame and money through it. This phenomenon first began around 2009 when Justin Bieber became famous due to his YouTube covers of popular songs. And it still continues to encourage more and more people to join this platform with the hopes of making it big, due to examples like PewDiePie, IISuperwomanII, NigaHiga and Unbox Therapy etc., who also rose to fame through their indigenous YouTube channels.

Citations:

Blogger. (2005). First Version - Youtube 2005 [Photograph]. Blogger. Retrieved from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SwxY6Dd5VCkZlzobS4ACGB0p6gcsYw9WO5Q-vinL5VHpMEssFnR846fI0wzbr1fAhvkTsQRSCG6i3JFuiEZ8F6JRFC1D1cYYwppGhS1ok9Uiil8guHT7l4VpqzrvDvrX3IY6wbck75U/s1600/FirstVersions_YouTube-2005-May.png

Karim, J. (2005, April 23). Retrieved March 04, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw

Merch, D. (2019, February 19). 37 Mind Blowing YouTube Facts, Figures and Statistics – 2019.
Retrieved from https://merchdope.com/youtube-stats/

Press, A. (2006, October 10). Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion.
Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15196982/ns/business-us_
business/t/google-buys-youtube-billion/#.XHxV9IhKjIU