1 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:13,200 Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from works dot com. Hey there, 2 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: and welcome to text Stuff. I am your host, Jonathan Strickland, 3 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: executive producer, here at how Stuff Works, and today I 4 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: thought we'd take a look at one of the most 5 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:26,520 Speaker 1: influential sites on the Internet. In fact, it's the second 6 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 1: largest search engine on the Web. And if you haven't 7 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: looked at the title of this episode, you might be 8 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:36,040 Speaker 1: thinking I'm talking about Yahoo or something, but nope, I'm 9 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:38,839 Speaker 1: talking about YouTube. It's a site that has recently been 10 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:42,400 Speaker 1: in the spotlight for lots of not so great reasons, 11 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,559 Speaker 1: but we'll get into those a bit later. And I 12 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: should mention this is part one of a multipart episode, 13 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: and as of the recording, I'm not exactly sure how 14 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 1: many episodes this is going to end up being in total, 15 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: but I suspect it will be too. I'll let you 16 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: know more in our next episode after I've those notes done. 17 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 1: But today, YouTube is the dominant player in online video content. 18 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: Users watch, share, and upload hours of videos every moment, 19 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 1: So we're gonna take a look at how YouTube got 20 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: it start, how it rose to prominence, and some of 21 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: the stories and scandals that have shaped it along the way. 22 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: So let's start at the very beginning, which I am 23 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,760 Speaker 1: told through song is a very good place to start, 24 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: and that would be at PayPal. Now. PayPal, to back 25 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: up even further, was founded partially by two other companies. 26 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: Peter Thiel, Ken Howary Luke Nozack and Max Levchin created 27 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:49,720 Speaker 1: a service called Confinity. Like today's PayPal, this was a 28 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:55,120 Speaker 1: money transferring platform, and in two thousand, Confinity merged with 29 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: an online banking site called x dot com, which was 30 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: co created by Elon Musk. So already we've got some 31 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: really big names involved in this story, namely Peter Thiel 32 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:09,360 Speaker 1: and Elon Musk. Really, the news service became known as 33 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:12,840 Speaker 1: PayPal shortly thereafter, and by two thousand two had attracted 34 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: attention from a little company called eBay. eBay moved to 35 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: a choir PayPal for the princely sum of one and 36 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 1: a half billion with a B dollars. Now, this acquisition 37 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 1: made a lot of people really rich. Or let's get 38 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: real here for a second. People, it made some people 39 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:39,079 Speaker 1: rich and other people it made way more rich than 40 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 1: they already were. Because I hate to tell you this, 41 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: but the fairy tale of the developer who comes from 42 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:49,079 Speaker 1: nothing and then becomes a millionaire isn't nearly as common 43 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:52,399 Speaker 1: as we would all like to think. Often it's more 44 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: like rich person goes and does things and gets more rich. 45 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,200 Speaker 1: But that's a topic for another show on another podcast. 46 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:05,360 Speaker 1: Really now, two former employees of PayPal, Chad Hurley and 47 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 1: Steve Chen, were shooting the breeze at Chen's then new 48 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: San Francisco home, and I like to imagine they were 49 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:17,560 Speaker 1: having money fights with each other, throwing balls of cash around. 50 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 1: That's probably not accurate. They did shoot some video while 51 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: they were hanging out, and then they lamented that sharing 52 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: video online was unreasonably hard. The Internet and the Web 53 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: had started to transform everything, but it was still difficult 54 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:38,960 Speaker 1: to get video to anyone. This is the era before 55 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:42,400 Speaker 1: the smartphone, so for one thing, we didn't all have 56 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: video cameras in our pockets. And it was the era 57 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: before anyone had created a really dependable platform upon which 58 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: you could upload and share video that could get a 59 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: lot of traction. Meanwhile, there was a third former PayPal 60 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:02,880 Speaker 1: employee named Jawed Catam who was lamenting that there was 61 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: no easy way to find videos of specific events online. 62 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,560 Speaker 1: He was thinking about some events that had really made 63 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 1: the news and you should be able to find video 64 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: of those events online, But unlike other sources on the 65 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,240 Speaker 1: other types of media, there was no really good way 66 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:24,599 Speaker 1: of searching for video. So you could find news reports 67 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: or sometimes images, but you couldn't necessarily find video clips. Now, 68 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:32,360 Speaker 1: there were two events in particular that he cites as 69 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:36,800 Speaker 1: being sort of the inspiration for thinking about this, and 70 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:40,120 Speaker 1: one of them is is a catastrophe, and the other 71 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: one not as much, although it was treated as a 72 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: catastrophe at the time. So the two events he cited 73 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: in an interview in two thousand six were the moment 74 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 1: during the halftime show of the two thousand four Super Bowl. 75 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:56,080 Speaker 1: That moment the moment in which Janet Jackson's breast was 76 00:04:56,160 --> 00:05:00,839 Speaker 1: exposed during what was later called a wardrobe malfunction. So 77 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 1: that was the first event he cited as one of 78 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: the reasons he wanted to create a platform that would 79 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: be easier to share video because he couldn't find video 80 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:14,359 Speaker 1: of that event. And the other was a tsunami that 81 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:19,520 Speaker 1: had devastated places like Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and India, 82 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:21,839 Speaker 1: and he knew that there were a lot of people 83 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: who had captured video footage of the tsunami and that 84 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:30,880 Speaker 1: video footage could be really valuable for people and educational 85 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: for people, but there was no easy way to search 86 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:36,240 Speaker 1: for it. You couldn't find it anywhere. And he knew 87 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:39,160 Speaker 1: that there were other events like this, but again there 88 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:41,920 Speaker 1: was no way to find them. So he would end 89 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,840 Speaker 1: up having a meeting with Chen and Hurley, the two 90 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:47,599 Speaker 1: guys I mentioned earlier, and talk about this problem, and 91 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,680 Speaker 1: they were all kind of going over this same issue. Now. 92 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:52,920 Speaker 1: There was no platform at that time where you could 93 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: easily upload a video and other people could go there 94 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:58,800 Speaker 1: to watch it that really gained traction. There were a 95 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:01,360 Speaker 1: lot of little sites, but no one had really come 96 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: to the forefront. When it came to video online, your 97 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:08,000 Speaker 1: options were pretty much limited. You might host a file 98 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:10,720 Speaker 1: on a server and people could visit a website and 99 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:14,919 Speaker 1: download the file to their own machine. That's not terribly 100 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:18,040 Speaker 1: user friendly and it took a long time and still 101 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:20,840 Speaker 1: let's somehow. That's how some of the earliest web series 102 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: like Red Versus Blue from Rooster Teeth distributed their content 103 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:26,520 Speaker 1: in the early days, is that you would actually pop 104 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:30,080 Speaker 1: onto their site, download a file when it became available, 105 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: and then on your computer at home you would launched 106 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:36,480 Speaker 1: the video in a video player program that was compatible 107 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: with whatever file format the content creator was using. It's 108 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:45,240 Speaker 1: not the smoothest experience. You can also create a web 109 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:49,840 Speaker 1: based video player using one of several different proprietary formats, 110 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:54,040 Speaker 1: which just made things more confusing. Microsoft had Active Movie, 111 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: which was a media player that launched in Nix and 112 00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:01,520 Speaker 1: allowed streaming media. Real Player had launched their application the 113 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:05,440 Speaker 1: following year in and Apple would follow suit in n 114 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:10,040 Speaker 1: with quick Time four and their streaming media format, So 115 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,520 Speaker 1: there were a few solutions out there if you wanted 116 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: to host streaming video on a site, but it was 117 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:17,440 Speaker 1: still not the greatest experience in the world from a 118 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:21,640 Speaker 1: user perspective because most people were relying upon dial up modems, 119 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:26,080 Speaker 1: so it was really slow to access anything. They had 120 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: to download whatever the applicable movie playing program was and 121 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: have that stored on their machine, and streaming video was 122 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:37,240 Speaker 1: just hard to do without all those annoying buffering issues. 123 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:42,120 Speaker 1: So still not very great now. Those solutions also, again 124 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:44,080 Speaker 1: we're not entirely based on the web. You had to 125 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:47,080 Speaker 1: have that program, so first you have to go and 126 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,000 Speaker 1: download your Active movie player, and then you would have 127 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:53,120 Speaker 1: to access the website that actually has the streaming content 128 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 1: on it, and if you went to a different site 129 00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: that had say quick Time for streaming content on it, 130 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: you would have to get a totally different later because 131 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:05,680 Speaker 1: they were incompatible formats. This proprietary approach was fragmenting the 132 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: experience and that's never really satisfying from a user perspective. 133 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: In two thousand two, Adobes Flash product came along, and 134 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,160 Speaker 1: that simplified things because people began to adopt that as 135 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:20,080 Speaker 1: this standard for streaming technology at the time. And a 136 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: couple of years later, more people had access to broadband speeds, 137 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 1: making streaming video a viable option that didn't always include 138 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:30,040 Speaker 1: ages of buffering time. So you had sort of this 139 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 1: convergence of different events that were making it easier to 140 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:41,560 Speaker 1: have a streaming video service. You had Flash coming about, 141 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:46,079 Speaker 1: which gave a lot more versatility to streaming video, and 142 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:48,960 Speaker 1: you had the fact that more than half of American 143 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 1: households had access to what was then considered broadband speeds, 144 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 1: which was much lower than what we consider broadband today. 145 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 1: So in early two thousand five things were kind of 146 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:03,800 Speaker 1: falling into place. It was the right time to look 147 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:08,560 Speaker 1: into creating a platform in which users could upload video 148 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:12,480 Speaker 1: footage and watch other video clips. It would become parts 149 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:16,600 Speaker 1: social platform, parts search engine, and the three felt they 150 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:19,199 Speaker 1: were onto something and began to have some serious discussions 151 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:22,199 Speaker 1: about what it would take to launch such a platform. 152 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: So who are these guys? Well, Steve Chen was born 153 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:29,959 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight in Taipei, Taiwan. His family moved 154 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:33,440 Speaker 1: to Chicago, Illinois, when Chen was fifteen years old. He 155 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:37,520 Speaker 1: attended the University of Illinois Champagne, Urbana. This was a 156 00:09:37,559 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: school that had some pretty notable alumni, particularly in the 157 00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:44,920 Speaker 1: field of computer science. For example Mark Andreson, who would 158 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:49,559 Speaker 1: go on to co create the first commercially successful web browser, Mosaic. 159 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:53,560 Speaker 1: He went there. Chen was interested in coding and graduated 160 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:56,520 Speaker 1: from the university and moved on to work for PayPal, 161 00:09:56,920 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 1: and he would end up meeting Chad Hurley on his 162 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: first day on the job. Hurley was born in nineteen 163 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 1: seventy seven in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. He studied fine art at 164 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,800 Speaker 1: the University of Pennsylvania, and he leveraged his artistic abilities 165 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,400 Speaker 1: to help design user interfaces and join PayPal to work 166 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:19,800 Speaker 1: on its UI. And that's really important. We often will 167 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:23,319 Speaker 1: not really consider how challenging it is to create a 168 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:30,280 Speaker 1: user interface that is clear. It gives the user very 169 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:36,640 Speaker 1: uh simple instructions on how to use the service, and 170 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:39,319 Speaker 1: there's not a lot of clutter there. It's actually a 171 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:42,600 Speaker 1: lot more challenging to do than you would think. And 172 00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:45,400 Speaker 1: so Hurley came from this from a fine arts perspective, 173 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,719 Speaker 1: which is pretty interesting to me. Jawad Karnem was born 174 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:51,640 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine and East Germany and his family 175 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:54,440 Speaker 1: moved to West Germany in nineteen eighty, which was a 176 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:57,280 Speaker 1: thing back then because there used to be an East 177 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 1: and West Germany. I remember those His parents were scientists 178 00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:04,720 Speaker 1: and researchers. They moved to the United States in nineteen 179 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:08,960 Speaker 1: Kareem would attend the University of Illinois along with Chen, 180 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:13,320 Speaker 1: although he didn't actually meet Chen while attending the school, 181 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:15,800 Speaker 1: and he dropped out before graduating in order to go 182 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:19,160 Speaker 1: work at PayPal. Now, according to the sources I research, 183 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 1: Kareem didn't meet up with Chen until they were both 184 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:23,719 Speaker 1: at that company, until they were both at PayPal, though 185 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,960 Speaker 1: they again did attend the same university. Kareem would later 186 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:30,400 Speaker 1: leave YouTube and finish his studies first, though he would 187 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:33,080 Speaker 1: graduate in two thousand and four with his undergraduate degree. 188 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:38,760 Speaker 1: He would leave YouTube later on and pursue post graduate degrees, 189 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: and early on he was frequently left out of stories 190 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:45,160 Speaker 1: about YouTube's rise to success, though that was later rectified. 191 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:47,240 Speaker 1: And I'll talk a little bit about why he was 192 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:49,480 Speaker 1: kind of written out of the history and just a 193 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 1: little bit. Oh and uh. Like I said, YouTube wasn't 194 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:55,800 Speaker 1: their first go at a video platform service. There was 195 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:59,640 Speaker 1: an earlier failed concept that I think I should address. 196 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:05,160 Speaker 1: The original video platform concept before they settled on YouTube 197 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:08,720 Speaker 1: was one that Chen Hurley and Kaream called tune In 198 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:12,040 Speaker 1: hook Up and yes, it was meant to be a 199 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:16,559 Speaker 1: dating website. Users were supposed to post videos of themselves 200 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:20,040 Speaker 1: and Peru's other videos, all in the name of finding 201 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:23,960 Speaker 1: a certain special someone with whom you could then hook up. 202 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:27,440 Speaker 1: According to Kareem in an interview in two thousand sixteen, 203 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:31,600 Speaker 1: the founders even trolled through Craigslist personal ads and offered 204 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:35,640 Speaker 1: women twenty dollars to upload videos of themselves to this 205 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:41,440 Speaker 1: service in order to populate it, but they found zero takers. Anyway, 206 00:12:41,679 --> 00:12:45,120 Speaker 1: that particular startup fizzled, but the three founders saw possibilities 207 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,280 Speaker 1: in using the video platform technology a different way, And 208 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:53,240 Speaker 1: on February two thousand five Valentine's Day, which Kareem would 209 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: later say was to a coder, just a normal day, 210 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:00,360 Speaker 1: which I think is just a sly remark on the 211 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:04,440 Speaker 1: personal lives of your typical coders, the team pivoted away 212 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,880 Speaker 1: from this concept of tune in hook up and they 213 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:13,000 Speaker 1: pivoted toward YouTube. Hurley registered the trademark for the logo 214 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:16,079 Speaker 1: and the domain of the site on that day. Their 215 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: new platform would be one where people could upload videos 216 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:22,080 Speaker 1: about whatever subjects they like within reason, and I wouldn't 217 00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:25,520 Speaker 1: have a narrow focus on dating like their original concept, 218 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:29,320 Speaker 1: but rather serve as a general video publication and consumption site. 219 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 1: But would it work well? They weren't sure. Chinn and 220 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,319 Speaker 1: Kareem were focused on creating the technical platform for the service, 221 00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:40,040 Speaker 1: while Hurley concentrated on the user interface and the logo 222 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:43,600 Speaker 1: design for the site. The team built out the infrastructure 223 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:46,560 Speaker 1: for the service, and the first video to officially hit 224 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 1: YouTube would not go up until April two thousand five. Now, 225 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of you already know the name 226 00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: of that video because it is a piece of Internet history, 227 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:00,640 Speaker 1: But just in case you don't and you some pub 228 00:14:00,679 --> 00:14:03,480 Speaker 1: trivia knowledge in your back pocket. The title of the 229 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:07,120 Speaker 1: very first video upload to YouTube was Me at the 230 00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:10,800 Speaker 1: Zoo and it's a video of Jawad Kareem standing in 231 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:14,040 Speaker 1: front of an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo 232 00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:18,280 Speaker 1: and it published on April two thousand five. As of 233 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: the recording of this podcast, it has accumulated more than 234 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:26,240 Speaker 1: forty four million, five hundred thousand views. It lasts eighteen 235 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:30,680 Speaker 1: seconds long and contains the important information that elephants are 236 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:35,200 Speaker 1: really cool because they have really long trunks. And while 237 00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:37,440 Speaker 1: I'm poking some fun at the content of the video, 238 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:40,240 Speaker 1: the important thing was it was a piece of content 239 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,320 Speaker 1: that could be tested out on the platform itself. What 240 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,000 Speaker 1: was in the video wasn't nearly as important as the 241 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:48,440 Speaker 1: fact that this was the first video to go live 242 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:52,880 Speaker 1: on an official YouTube server it would ultimately face the public. 243 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:56,440 Speaker 1: This wasn't just some random test video on a server 244 00:14:56,560 --> 00:14:58,840 Speaker 1: that was never going to be forward facing and only 245 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:02,640 Speaker 1: be used by developers. This was the first actual YouTube video, 246 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:05,480 Speaker 1: and that is why it is significant. Now. I have 247 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 1: a lot more to say about YouTube in those early days, 248 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:11,520 Speaker 1: but before I get into that, let's take a quick 249 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:21,440 Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor. All right, it's two thousand 250 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:27,240 Speaker 1: five April. YouTube still was not yet open for the public. Essentially, 251 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 1: in late April early May two five, the company launched 252 00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:34,320 Speaker 1: its beta home page. They had secured a deal with 253 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:39,040 Speaker 1: an internet service provider called Server Server Beach, and the 254 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,640 Speaker 1: deal was for an unlimited data plan for a hundred 255 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:45,160 Speaker 1: and twenty nine dollars a month. The earliest incarnation of 256 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:49,840 Speaker 1: YouTube wasn't exactly a home run. Kareem said that their 257 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:54,520 Speaker 1: original version of the site didn't let users select which 258 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 1: videos to watch. Imagine that going to YouTube, but you 259 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:01,720 Speaker 1: have no control over what video is going to play. Instead, 260 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 1: it was a Russian roulette style of experience. You'd go 261 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: to the site and it would randomly serve up one 262 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:10,920 Speaker 1: of the videos stored on its servers. And because there 263 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: were relatively few videos available and meant you were likely 264 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,000 Speaker 1: to see a lot of the same stuff, it wasn't 265 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:19,040 Speaker 1: the sort of experience that would lead people to coming 266 00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:21,920 Speaker 1: back for more. And in fact, Karim himself had gone 267 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:26,240 Speaker 1: to airports and filmed planes landing and taking off just 268 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,720 Speaker 1: to have more content to throw into the servers, because 269 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:32,720 Speaker 1: otherwise you didn't really have anything to populate them, and 270 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:36,920 Speaker 1: that is obviously any that's a problem any user generated 271 00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:40,240 Speaker 1: platform is going to face. You don't have a lot 272 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: of content until you have users to generate that content. 273 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 1: But how do you attract the users in the first place. 274 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,920 Speaker 1: It could have been the very end of YouTube at 275 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:54,200 Speaker 1: that very beginning, because they had to get enough people 276 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,720 Speaker 1: in there to create content to to alter the user 277 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:01,360 Speaker 1: interface of this approach, and the founders were still sussing 278 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:04,199 Speaker 1: out what YouTube was supposed to be because besides the 279 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:08,520 Speaker 1: dating site idea they had already abandoned, they thought perhaps 280 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:11,080 Speaker 1: that YouTube would be a place where you'd have relatively 281 00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:14,520 Speaker 1: small circles of friends and you would share videos between 282 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:17,639 Speaker 1: the folks in that circle. In other words, the YouTube 283 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: founders had a vision for their service kind of similar 284 00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:23,680 Speaker 1: to what Twitter founders thought their users were going to want, 285 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:26,800 Speaker 1: And it turns out that both groups weren't quite on target. 286 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:29,480 Speaker 1: While they thought this is a place where you could 287 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:34,160 Speaker 1: share videos with your close friends and family, what they 288 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:37,120 Speaker 1: saw was that people wanted to share to the rest 289 00:17:37,119 --> 00:17:40,360 Speaker 1: of the world. It was a much grander scale than 290 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: they had anticipated. The site was still struggling to find 291 00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:47,560 Speaker 1: its place when on July four, two thousand five, Kareem 292 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:52,040 Speaker 1: attended a Faithful Independence Day barbecue party and it was 293 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:55,719 Speaker 1: hosted by a guy named Mike Greenfield. Greenfield had been 294 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 1: another PayPal employee back in the day. Also in attendance 295 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:03,280 Speaker 1: of that already was a guy named Keith Rabboi or 296 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:06,840 Speaker 1: Reboi I guess it would be the French pronunciation. He 297 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:11,160 Speaker 1: had another PayPal employee. He had been an executive with PayPal, 298 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,800 Speaker 1: and Reboi and Kareem got into a conversation about YouTube, 299 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:19,840 Speaker 1: and Kareem was convinced to show off YouTube by plopping 300 00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:23,879 Speaker 1: down in Greenfield's bedroom and using Greenfield's personal computer to 301 00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:28,399 Speaker 1: check out all the videos on YouTube. They literally sat 302 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:34,320 Speaker 1: down and watched all of them. Jawed, Kareem and Uh 303 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: and Keith Reboi, So, Keithan and Jared are sitting there 304 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: there watching every single video that's on YouTube these days, 305 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:43,679 Speaker 1: If you tried that, you would never finish watching it. 306 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:45,800 Speaker 1: There would just be too much content there. You would 307 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,160 Speaker 1: die of old age before you got through it all. 308 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:51,760 Speaker 1: But back then, on July four, two thousand five, the 309 00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,960 Speaker 1: entirety of all the content on YouTube consisted of about 310 00:18:56,119 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: thirty minutes worth of videos. Many of them were playing 311 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:03,560 Speaker 1: is taking Off and Landing Now. Despite the lack of 312 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:07,959 Speaker 1: compelling content, Keith saw the potential in YouTube and offered 313 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,040 Speaker 1: to become an investor on the spot. And according to him, 314 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:13,600 Speaker 1: the only other time he ever felt compelled to make 315 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:17,040 Speaker 1: an investment that quickly was when he first heard about 316 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:21,080 Speaker 1: the concept of Airbnb. Kareem was getting ready to leave 317 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:24,040 Speaker 1: YouTube in order to pursue a PhD program at Stanford. 318 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:27,679 Speaker 1: He would continue to serve as a consultant for YouTube 319 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:31,320 Speaker 1: while he was going off to pursue his studies. Meanwhile, 320 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:36,240 Speaker 1: Keith Reboise showed off YouTube to Yeah, another former PayPal employee, 321 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,479 Speaker 1: this one named roll Off. Both of both had actually 322 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: worked as the chief financial officer of PayPal, so you 323 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,080 Speaker 1: may notice this is a bunch of former PayPal folks 324 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:50,280 Speaker 1: who were all kind of coalescing around this YouTube concept, 325 00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:54,159 Speaker 1: and in fact, without PayPal, YouTube never would have existed. 326 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 1: In the summer of two thousand five, Botho was working 327 00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:01,000 Speaker 1: at an investment firm called Sequoia cap at All and 328 00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:04,000 Speaker 1: both was able to help secure an initial investment in 329 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:07,760 Speaker 1: YouTube through Sequoia. Now they get those investments going, they 330 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:11,679 Speaker 1: had to change the narrative a bit of YouTube and 331 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:15,880 Speaker 1: had it focused solely on Chen and Hurley and kind 332 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,480 Speaker 1: of write Kareem out of the picture because Kareem, who 333 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,159 Speaker 1: had left to continue his studies, was creating kind of 334 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:27,240 Speaker 1: a problem. Not on purpose, it's just because of his absence. 335 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,600 Speaker 1: The justification was that it would be really challenging to 336 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:34,439 Speaker 1: pitch a company to potential investors if part of the 337 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:37,440 Speaker 1: story was that one of the three founders had recently 338 00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:42,600 Speaker 1: left the company. They made YouTube sound less stable, so 339 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: they sort of erased Kareem from the history of YouTube 340 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:48,720 Speaker 1: for the time being. He would eventually get written back 341 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:52,639 Speaker 1: into that history, and he also would not complete his 342 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:56,320 Speaker 1: postgraduate work. He never earned that PhD from Stanford. He 343 00:20:56,359 --> 00:21:00,200 Speaker 1: did earn a master's degree, and he did with Tame 344 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:03,720 Speaker 1: Shares of YouTube, which softens the sting of not getting 345 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,520 Speaker 1: that doctor in a little bit. Now. Both have created 346 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:11,640 Speaker 1: a memo and presentation arguing for the investment into YouTube 347 00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:15,320 Speaker 1: for Sequoia Capital. His investment plan was to supply one 348 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:19,320 Speaker 1: million dollars initially, followed by a four million dollars Series 349 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 1: A funding and in return, Sequoia Capital would get at 350 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:27,760 Speaker 1: stake in YouTube once it emerged from Series A funding. Now, 351 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,639 Speaker 1: the actual details of the funding deal once it was 352 00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:34,399 Speaker 1: concluded are a bit clouded in secrecy, but a lot 353 00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:37,520 Speaker 1: of the sites I research suggested the initial investment was 354 00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 1: more like half a million dollars, with another three million 355 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:44,800 Speaker 1: dollars investment in Series A funding in November two thousand five, 356 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,000 Speaker 1: for a total of three and a half million dollars 357 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:50,080 Speaker 1: of that initial funding. But considering what happened to the 358 00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:53,359 Speaker 1: site over the following years, any investment of around that 359 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:55,760 Speaker 1: size was more than worth it and more than paid 360 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:59,480 Speaker 1: for itself. When you talk about big gets, this one 361 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:05,960 Speaker 1: definitely counts now. Just to backtrack a bit, in September 362 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,960 Speaker 1: two thousand five, YouTube hit a milestone. The site had 363 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:14,920 Speaker 1: its first video to hit one million views. This video 364 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,119 Speaker 1: was an advertisement for Nike, and it started Brazilian soccer 365 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:22,520 Speaker 1: player or football player if you prefer, named Ronald Dino. 366 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:25,879 Speaker 1: He puts on a new pair of Nikes and then 367 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,040 Speaker 1: he shows off some truly impressive ball juggling skills with 368 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:32,040 Speaker 1: his feet before kicking the ball precisely so it hits 369 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:35,520 Speaker 1: the goals crossbar and bounces back to him. He's standing 370 00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: many yards away from the goal. It's actually really impressive 371 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,720 Speaker 1: to me that he is so precise with his kicks. 372 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,680 Speaker 1: He's juggling the ball, kicks it while it's coming down, 373 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,879 Speaker 1: It hits the crossbar, bounces right back to him. He 374 00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 1: starts juggling the ball again, does this a few more 375 00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:55,240 Speaker 1: times in a row consistently. The video itself is about 376 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:58,359 Speaker 1: two minutes forty five seconds long, and I came to 377 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,080 Speaker 1: the realization that I will never do anything in my 378 00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:05,280 Speaker 1: life as well as that man was able to juggle 379 00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:08,879 Speaker 1: and kick a soccer ball. You could also argue that 380 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:11,679 Speaker 1: this was the first viral video on YouTube. It was 381 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:14,479 Speaker 1: an advertisement and it got more than a million views. 382 00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,200 Speaker 1: It was pretty much a breakaway success in those early days. 383 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,760 Speaker 1: Also in September two thousand five, Julie Supan left the 384 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:25,960 Speaker 1: Best Buy Corporation to join YouTube as the head of 385 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:30,240 Speaker 1: marketing for the company. Now with the founders, she brainstormed 386 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:33,639 Speaker 1: the position YouTube wanted to take to the public, like 387 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,399 Speaker 1: what were they going to portray themselves as? What was 388 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,439 Speaker 1: their mission statement? And they decided that YouTube was going 389 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:45,639 Speaker 1: to become a broadcast medium for average people. This is 390 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,560 Speaker 1: all according to a piece that was written in mash 391 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:51,800 Speaker 1: Double a few years ago. One thing that set YouTube 392 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:55,760 Speaker 1: apart from many other sites was that they were deciding 393 00:23:55,840 --> 00:24:01,920 Speaker 1: to to convert video files into a standard format. See 394 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,600 Speaker 1: a lot of other video sites, you had to actually 395 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:09,240 Speaker 1: have a specific format before you could upload it. YouTube 396 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:12,840 Speaker 1: would allow users to upload videos in different formats, and 397 00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:15,440 Speaker 1: then the site would take care of converting those formats 398 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,560 Speaker 1: into flash, which removed that pressure from the user to 399 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:20,720 Speaker 1: make sure the video file they were sending met some 400 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:23,920 Speaker 1: specific criteria. There was a limit to how long a 401 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:27,000 Speaker 1: video could be, but the file format didn't matter as much. 402 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,800 Speaker 1: And when you remove that barrier, it made YouTube much 403 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:33,280 Speaker 1: more user friendly and helped attract more traffic. Imagine that 404 00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:35,280 Speaker 1: you've shot a video and you want to upload it 405 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:37,480 Speaker 1: to a service, but then you find out that you 406 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:39,680 Speaker 1: have to use a completely different format. You would have 407 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:43,040 Speaker 1: to convert the file, or maybe look for a different service, 408 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,119 Speaker 1: or even reshoot your footage and put it into a 409 00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:49,440 Speaker 1: new file format. Before you could do that, YouTube said no, no, no, 410 00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: We'll take whatever format you want to create your videos 411 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:56,479 Speaker 1: in and that will do the change on our side 412 00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:02,080 Speaker 1: and post it to our flash based media player. Around 413 00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:05,160 Speaker 1: the same time, YouTube users were really starting to push 414 00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:09,000 Speaker 1: the platform's capabilities According to Time magazine, it was in 415 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:12,280 Speaker 1: November two thousand five when the company first started seeing 416 00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: data transfers of around eight terabytes of size every single day. 417 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,480 Speaker 1: That unlimited data of land wasn't part of the picture anymore, 418 00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,680 Speaker 1: and so I was starting to get expensive to operate 419 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,040 Speaker 1: the business. To pay for those bandwidth costs, the company 420 00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:28,639 Speaker 1: had to invest in engineers to build out the site. 421 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,520 Speaker 1: They needed servers to hold all that video content, and 422 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:35,000 Speaker 1: they needed data service plans to cover the cost of 423 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,160 Speaker 1: the massive amounts of traffic that was hitting the site 424 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,359 Speaker 1: every day. And at the time YouTube didn't really have 425 00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:44,400 Speaker 1: any monetization plans. It was clearly an up and coming service, 426 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:48,440 Speaker 1: but it was operating at a loss. The company headquarters 427 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 1: weren't much to write home about either. For a while, 428 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,399 Speaker 1: they were operating out of Sequoia Capital's headquarters, but the 429 00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:58,840 Speaker 1: company soon relocated to San Mateo, California, and they moved 430 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:01,920 Speaker 1: into a space that was a of a pizzeria, specifically 431 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:06,760 Speaker 1: Amichi's East Coast Pizzeria, and according to a YouTube designer 432 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: named Christina Broadbeck, the building had a real rat infestation problem. 433 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:14,800 Speaker 1: She said the rats were cats sized, which I think 434 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,399 Speaker 1: puts them in the category of r O U s S. 435 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,119 Speaker 1: All of this was happening while the site was still 436 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:25,040 Speaker 1: technically in beta. YouTube didn't emerge from this beta phase 437 00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:28,760 Speaker 1: until December fifteen, two thousand five. The site had used 438 00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:31,679 Speaker 1: investment money to increase the number of servers and to 439 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:34,280 Speaker 1: improve bandwidth service to make sure using the site was 440 00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:37,399 Speaker 1: a positive experience, and over the next several months, the 441 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,360 Speaker 1: site continued to gain users and videos. In February two 442 00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:44,920 Speaker 1: thousand six, videos on the site we're getting fifteen million 443 00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:48,680 Speaker 1: views per day, with about twenty thousand new videos being 444 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:51,840 Speaker 1: added every single day. Now it grew not only in 445 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,719 Speaker 1: content but an employee count. It also began to encounter 446 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,960 Speaker 1: the first instance of intellectual property headaches for the service. 447 00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:02,640 Speaker 1: In February two thousand six, YouTube receive a request from 448 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:07,800 Speaker 1: the American Broadcast Network in BC. NBC employees saw that 449 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,600 Speaker 1: a clip from Saturday Night Live called Lazy Sunday was 450 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:14,760 Speaker 1: up on YouTube. This was part of SNL's digital short 451 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,679 Speaker 1: series with Andy Sandberg and Chris Parnell. Lazy Sunday had 452 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,720 Speaker 1: racked up more than one point two million views NBC 453 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,080 Speaker 1: one of the clip taken down, along with around five 454 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,400 Speaker 1: other clips containing NBC content mostly from Saturday Night Live, 455 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:33,439 Speaker 1: and YouTube would comply with the request, But later in 456 00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:38,360 Speaker 1: June two thousand six, NBC approached YouTube with a different request. 457 00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:43,000 Speaker 1: The broadcast company formed a partnership with YouTube. In June 458 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: two thousand six, NBC created a digital channel on YouTube, 459 00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:50,920 Speaker 1: on which it would share clips of various shows, including 460 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,760 Speaker 1: special material made just for the YouTube channel. So why 461 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,520 Speaker 1: did they have a change of heart? Well, part of 462 00:27:57,520 --> 00:27:59,120 Speaker 1: it might have had something to do with the fact 463 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,600 Speaker 1: that NBC had come in last place among the big 464 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,840 Speaker 1: four broadcast companies, the others being ABC, CBS and Fox. 465 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,200 Speaker 1: By June two thousand and six, YouTube boasted that people 466 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:14,040 Speaker 1: were watching approximately seventy million videos per day. That was 467 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:18,280 Speaker 1: a valuable audience. So NBC was hoping to convert those 468 00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,920 Speaker 1: viewers into television viewers and to give them a little 469 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:24,560 Speaker 1: extra material to kind of bring them in and have 470 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,080 Speaker 1: them watch shows like The Office or Saturday Night Live. 471 00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:32,879 Speaker 1: One month later, that seventy million videos per day was 472 00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:36,199 Speaker 1: up to a hundred million videos per day. It seemed 473 00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:41,920 Speaker 1: like YouTube was unstoppable. In between those two NBC communications 474 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:47,720 Speaker 1: came around of Series B funding, another venture capital fundraising series, 475 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:51,680 Speaker 1: this time YouTube raised about eight million dollars from Sequoia, 476 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:53,600 Speaker 1: and a video that would end up becoming the first 477 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:57,480 Speaker 1: true mega hit on YouTube went online in that month 478 00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:01,160 Speaker 1: as well. That video was from a guy named Judson Lately, 479 00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 1: and it was titled The Evolution of Dance. Now it's 480 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,400 Speaker 1: since been surpassed. It's no longer the most watched video 481 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:11,920 Speaker 1: of all time, but for a while it reigned supreme 482 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:16,800 Speaker 1: with more than a hundred million views. I got a 483 00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:20,120 Speaker 1: lot more to say about those early days with YouTube, 484 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,760 Speaker 1: but before I jump into that, let's take another quick 485 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:33,040 Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor. All right, back to June 486 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:35,360 Speaker 1: two thousand and six. Now, that was when one of 487 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:39,240 Speaker 1: the first successful web series on YouTube premiered, because this 488 00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:42,440 Speaker 1: would become another hallmark of YouTube was not just the 489 00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,720 Speaker 1: one off videos or the videos that would come from 490 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,200 Speaker 1: a single creator or a group of creators, but the 491 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,160 Speaker 1: actual web series where you would have an ongoing story. 492 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:56,120 Speaker 1: This series was called Lonely Girl fifteen, and when it launched, 493 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,800 Speaker 1: there was no indication that this was a scripted show 494 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: with an actre is portraying a fictional character at the center. Instead, 495 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,720 Speaker 1: it appeared to be the genuine vlog or video diary 496 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:11,600 Speaker 1: of a young lady named Brie. Brie was actually an 497 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:15,200 Speaker 1: actress named Jessica Rose, and it all started off pretty 498 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:19,080 Speaker 1: grounded and believable, mundane, even just the day to day 499 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:24,560 Speaker 1: issues that a teenage lady is facing. But while it 500 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:29,040 Speaker 1: was getting popular, the ruse did not last long. In 501 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,120 Speaker 1: September two thousand six, just a few months after it launched, 502 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:35,520 Speaker 1: it became pretty widely known that Lonely Girl fifteen was 503 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,520 Speaker 1: a scripted show, that it was a performance and non 504 00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:44,680 Speaker 1: actual vlog. Once the gig was up, the show took 505 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:49,400 Speaker 1: a turn for the totes crazy, with storylines involving weird 506 00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:55,280 Speaker 1: cults and quote trait positive blood end quote. Now. I 507 00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:57,840 Speaker 1: never got into the web series while it was on, 508 00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 1: so I can't really give you my own personal opinion 509 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,480 Speaker 1: about it. I was only tangentially aware that Lonely Girl 510 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:06,560 Speaker 1: fifteen was a thing at the time. I had heard 511 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 1: about it, but never sought it out. In August two 512 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:13,520 Speaker 1: thousand six, YouTube launched a revenue generating strategy. They called 513 00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:19,280 Speaker 1: it participatory video ads. They also introduced brand channels. This 514 00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:22,680 Speaker 1: is similar to what NBC had launched earlier that summer. 515 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,760 Speaker 1: The ads would appear in the upper right corner of 516 00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,880 Speaker 1: YouTube homepage in a prime spot for listed videos, and 517 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:31,800 Speaker 1: if you clicked on that video in that space, it 518 00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:35,880 Speaker 1: would take users to sponsored content. Advertisers could link those 519 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:39,240 Speaker 1: videos to brand channels or two other clips on YouTube, 520 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:41,480 Speaker 1: and the site rolled out some features that made it 521 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:45,240 Speaker 1: easier to share links with other users, encouraging the spread 522 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:49,280 Speaker 1: of viral videos. The brand channels could feature brand specific 523 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,040 Speaker 1: logos and graphics, so each channel could be set apart 524 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:55,360 Speaker 1: from the YouTube standard as well as from each other. 525 00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:00,160 Speaker 1: October was a really big month for YouTube, and two 526 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:04,120 Speaker 1: thousand and six, first the company partnered with CBS, adding 527 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:06,680 Speaker 1: to the sites growing influence. They had already had the 528 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,240 Speaker 1: deal with NBC, and now CBS was on board. YouTube 529 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 1: also would launch a content i D tool, the first 530 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: of its kind for YouTube. This was an automated program 531 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:22,440 Speaker 1: designed to detect material that could infringe upon copyrights, and 532 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,560 Speaker 1: it also partnered with a company called Audible Magic to 533 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,360 Speaker 1: develop a technology that could analyze and identify audio clips. 534 00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,400 Speaker 1: That way, if you uploaded a popular song against a 535 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:35,560 Speaker 1: video that was just a static image, for example, YouTube 536 00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,600 Speaker 1: could still detected automatically and take down the video in 537 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: order to protect copyrights. This set the stage for an 538 00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,920 Speaker 1: enormous turn of events in the history of YouTube. In 539 00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:50,520 Speaker 1: October two thousand and six, Google made an offer that 540 00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:55,360 Speaker 1: YouTube couldn't refuse. This was an acquisition valued at about 541 00:32:55,400 --> 00:33:01,280 Speaker 1: one point six five billion dollars. YouTube employees would get 542 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:05,520 Speaker 1: shares of Google stock and become rich, or at least 543 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:08,480 Speaker 1: rich on paper. Well, that is, the ones who weren't 544 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,920 Speaker 1: already rich from all that filthy PayPal money they had 545 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:17,360 Speaker 1: received just a few years previous. And I say filthy 546 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,240 Speaker 1: totally tongue in cheek. It was completely legitimate money. It 547 00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:23,880 Speaker 1: was just a whole lot of legitimate money. Now, according 548 00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:25,760 Speaker 1: to legal briefs that were filed as part of a 549 00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:28,000 Speaker 1: lawsuit that I'm going to talk about in just a moment, 550 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:31,360 Speaker 1: we know that Chad Hurley made about three hundred thirty 551 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:34,960 Speaker 1: four million dollars in Google stock due to this deal. 552 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 1: Steve chen was at a slightly more modest three hundred 553 00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:43,720 Speaker 1: one million dollars, and John Kareem, who had left the 554 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:47,880 Speaker 1: company to pursue an education, received the smallest payout of 555 00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:51,240 Speaker 1: the three founders. His stocks were valued at somewhere around 556 00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:55,040 Speaker 1: sixty six million dollars. Not a bad haul to be honest. 557 00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:59,120 Speaker 1: Christina Broadbeck, whom I mentioned earlier as a YouTube designer, 558 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:02,959 Speaker 1: had shares were slightly more than nine million dollars, So 559 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: it really paid off to be a YouTube employee in 560 00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,320 Speaker 1: October two thousand six, and in all there were between 561 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:12,359 Speaker 1: fifty five and sixty five YouTube employees in total. That 562 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:16,080 Speaker 1: was it for a one point six five billion dollar acquisition. 563 00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:21,320 Speaker 1: That's incredible. As for Google, it had already been pursuing 564 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:25,520 Speaker 1: a streaming video strategy of its own before it purchased YouTube. 565 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:29,480 Speaker 1: In fact, it was the second most popular video streaming 566 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,880 Speaker 1: service that was online by a distance second, but it 567 00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:36,279 Speaker 1: was still second place. Now there were Google engineers who 568 00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:41,200 Speaker 1: were genuinely baffled at YouTube success. Google's technology allowed for 569 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:46,600 Speaker 1: videos with much better resolution than YouTube, but the engineers 570 00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:51,520 Speaker 1: had underestimated how appealing YouTube's automatic conversion process was to 571 00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:54,960 Speaker 1: the average user. Because with Google's video service, you had 572 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,640 Speaker 1: to use a specific video codec and provide information about 573 00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:01,839 Speaker 1: the technical details of the video of itself like its resolution. 574 00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:04,760 Speaker 1: With YouTube, all of the work was done for you. 575 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,200 Speaker 1: You just had to upload the file and YouTube did 576 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:10,840 Speaker 1: the rest. And so users had mostly ignored Google's product, 577 00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:13,359 Speaker 1: even though you could get higher quality video out of it, 578 00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:17,120 Speaker 1: and they flocked to YouTube instead. Google saw the writing 579 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:19,800 Speaker 1: on the wall and thus made the move. Towards the 580 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:23,759 Speaker 1: end of October, YouTube removed about thirty thousand videos in 581 00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,880 Speaker 1: an effort to respond to copyright infringement cases, and in November, 582 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,399 Speaker 1: YouTube signed a deal with the National Hockey League, which 583 00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:35,200 Speaker 1: would become the first big sports deal in YouTube's history. 584 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,640 Speaker 1: By January two thousand seven, when YouTube was not even 585 00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:42,520 Speaker 1: two years old, yet, the service was so popular that 586 00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:46,680 Speaker 1: analysts estimated the traffic to YouTube was equivalent to what 587 00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:51,239 Speaker 1: the entire Internet experienced back in two thousand so, in 588 00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:54,560 Speaker 1: other words, YouTube required as much bandwidth to operate in 589 00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:59,040 Speaker 1: two thousand seven as the entire Internet did seven years earlier. 590 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:02,879 Speaker 1: Of course, other services like Netflix would later follow suit 591 00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:07,200 Speaker 1: with similar kind of mind blowing statistics. In March two 592 00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:11,640 Speaker 1: thousand seven, YouTube became the target of a massive lawsuit, 593 00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:16,000 Speaker 1: the one I alluded to earlier. The plaintiff was Viacom. 594 00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:19,120 Speaker 1: This is the cable company that owned brands like Nickelodeon 595 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:22,359 Speaker 1: and MTV. The lawsuit was to the tune of one 596 00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:26,480 Speaker 1: billion dollars in damages, and it all centered on Viacom's 597 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:30,120 Speaker 1: claim that YouTube and by extension, Google, had failed to 598 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:35,040 Speaker 1: act appropriately when it came to protecting intellectual property. Basically, 599 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,320 Speaker 1: the lawsuit argued that YouTube was allowing users to upload 600 00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:42,200 Speaker 1: media that didn't belong to them, costing media companies millions 601 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,680 Speaker 1: of dollars of loss of revenues in the process. Now, 602 00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:49,000 Speaker 1: this is a tricky situation for multiple reasons. For one, 603 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:53,080 Speaker 1: YouTube was on the receiving end of thousands of videos 604 00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,200 Speaker 1: every day, so checking each one for evidence of copyright 605 00:36:56,239 --> 00:37:00,080 Speaker 1: infringement was not easy. Specifically, it wasn't easy to you 606 00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,080 Speaker 1: manually or not even possible manually, so you had to 607 00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:07,680 Speaker 1: rely on automatic approaches, and algorithms could be tricked. You 608 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,319 Speaker 1: might have seen a YouTube video here or there on 609 00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:13,760 Speaker 1: a popular television show, or a movie or music video 610 00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,640 Speaker 1: or something along those lines, and noticed that everything seems 611 00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:20,040 Speaker 1: to be flipped with like backwards writing and other clues. 612 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:22,920 Speaker 1: Now that could be an indication that the uploader made 613 00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:26,480 Speaker 1: that flip with editing software in an attempt to fool 614 00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,800 Speaker 1: any content recognition algorithms because they're looking for the reverse 615 00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:33,640 Speaker 1: version of that. But it's also tricky because arguing that 616 00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:38,280 Speaker 1: piracy results directly and lost revenues is impossible to prove. 617 00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:42,120 Speaker 1: The argument seems to say, this person over here watched 618 00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: unauthorized copies of our content on YouTube, and they should 619 00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:50,880 Speaker 1: have just purchased those copies. If the unauthorized copies didn't exist, 620 00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:54,640 Speaker 1: then that person would have bought a legitimate copy. But 621 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,759 Speaker 1: here's the thing, it's impossible to prove that someone would 622 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,640 Speaker 1: actually follow through with that. Further, it's impossible to say 623 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:04,760 Speaker 1: that some of the people who saw the unauthorized copies 624 00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,680 Speaker 1: didn't go out and buy legitimate copies of the content 625 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:11,560 Speaker 1: later on, or maybe they already owned a legitimate copy 626 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:14,520 Speaker 1: of the content, but they were using YouTube to access 627 00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:17,760 Speaker 1: the content without getting their personal copy out from wherever 628 00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:20,759 Speaker 1: they had stored it. So, in short, it's impossible to 629 00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:25,400 Speaker 1: prove the extent to which piracy impacts revenue. To add 630 00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:29,359 Speaker 1: to that, there were suspicions that people at YouTube, just 631 00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:33,560 Speaker 1: before the acquisition with Google, started to boost YouTube's numbers 632 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:38,600 Speaker 1: by allowing this unauthorized material to be uploaded to the site. 633 00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:41,920 Speaker 1: In other words, they were patting the value of the 634 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,680 Speaker 1: service by allowing some shady stuff to go on, and 635 00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:48,960 Speaker 1: then once the site got acquired it was no longer 636 00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:51,880 Speaker 1: their problem. That's a pretty cynical way of looking about it, 637 00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:53,319 Speaker 1: but it was something that a lot of people were 638 00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:57,200 Speaker 1: floating by at the time. YouTube, for its part, cited 639 00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:01,240 Speaker 1: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and claimed that the company 640 00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:03,799 Speaker 1: had been following the rules set out by the d 641 00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:09,000 Speaker 1: m c A. The lawsuit would stretch out over seven years, 642 00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:12,920 Speaker 1: only concluding in two thousand fourteen when the parties settled 643 00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:18,239 Speaker 1: out of court. This followed two different setbacks for Viacom. 644 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:23,320 Speaker 1: The first had happened in when Judge Louis Stanton ruled 645 00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:28,120 Speaker 1: favorably mostly for Google. Viacom would appeal that decision. It 646 00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:30,879 Speaker 1: was sent to a federal appeals court, but they sent 647 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,160 Speaker 1: it back down to a different court, a court that 648 00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:38,160 Speaker 1: was once again presided over by Judge Stanton, the guy 649 00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:40,480 Speaker 1: who had said that Google was mostly in the right 650 00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:44,120 Speaker 1: back in and Stanton gave essentially the same ruling in. 651 00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:49,560 Speaker 1: Then Viacom would appeal that decision, and that's when they 652 00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:52,600 Speaker 1: two companies were scheduled to meet in fen before they 653 00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:56,040 Speaker 1: reached this settlement, which was never made public, so we 654 00:39:56,080 --> 00:40:00,000 Speaker 1: don't actually know what money changed hands in the process. 655 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:04,000 Speaker 1: Us The general opinion in the text sphere seemed to 656 00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:06,400 Speaker 1: be that Viacom didn't really have much of a case. 657 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:09,520 Speaker 1: The d m c A offers up a concept called 658 00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:13,560 Speaker 1: safe harbor. Safe harbor is a protection for services like 659 00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:17,560 Speaker 1: YouTube and other platforms that allows users to contribute content 660 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:21,279 Speaker 1: to that platform. The basic idea is that if you 661 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:24,280 Speaker 1: have a platform and you let your users create the content, 662 00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:27,880 Speaker 1: you are not responsible for the stuff other people upload 663 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:31,160 Speaker 1: to your platform because you didn't create that content. Your 664 00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:33,600 Speaker 1: users didn't. You just gave them a space for them 665 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:37,160 Speaker 1: to put their stuff. In addition, YouTube had tools that 666 00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:41,080 Speaker 1: would automatically seek out instances of copyright infringement, and the 667 00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:45,320 Speaker 1: company provided processes through which intellectual property owners could post 668 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:51,000 Speaker 1: claims against material that they said infringed on their intellectual property. 669 00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:55,080 Speaker 1: So those processes could be anything from redirecting monetization so 670 00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:57,920 Speaker 1: in other words, someone else uploads a copy of a 671 00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:01,400 Speaker 1: movie that you made, you could, as the owner of 672 00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:04,799 Speaker 1: that intellectual property, choose to turn monetization off so they 673 00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:07,520 Speaker 1: can't make any money off of it, or even redirect 674 00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:10,080 Speaker 1: that monetization so any money they would have made goes 675 00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:13,319 Speaker 1: to you, or you could actually demanded that video be 676 00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,600 Speaker 1: removed and would be taken down off of YouTube. That 677 00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:18,959 Speaker 1: tool by the way, has been the center of much 678 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:23,000 Speaker 1: debate and controversy, as over zealous content owners have abused 679 00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:25,839 Speaker 1: it in the past, sometimes even using it to take 680 00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:29,279 Speaker 1: down their own videos that they put up in an 681 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,319 Speaker 1: effort to protect their intellectual property. I'll chat about that 682 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:37,480 Speaker 1: more in the next episode. I'm sure now, even though 683 00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:40,719 Speaker 1: we don't really know what happened with that, I think 684 00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:44,239 Speaker 1: we could say that at least YouTube from outward appearances 685 00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:47,359 Speaker 1: could claim that they were in all good faith pursuing 686 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:52,200 Speaker 1: the processes necessary to protect other people's intellectual property. Whether 687 00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:55,719 Speaker 1: they were really doing that to their fullest extent, that's 688 00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:58,879 Speaker 1: still a matter of debate. H I like to take 689 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,120 Speaker 1: people at their word. But the same time, I figure 690 00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:03,920 Speaker 1: if I ran a company that was worth billions of dollars, 691 00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:06,960 Speaker 1: I might claim that I was doing everything I could 692 00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:09,000 Speaker 1: to be on the up and up and not worry 693 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:11,759 Speaker 1: so much about whether that was true. But I'm not 694 00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,239 Speaker 1: in that position. If someone would like to put me 695 00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:18,160 Speaker 1: in that position and test my moral fiber, I welcome it. 696 00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:21,560 Speaker 1: Send your billion dollars to how stuff works care of 697 00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:25,040 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland, And I cannot stress how important that last 698 00:42:25,080 --> 00:42:28,160 Speaker 1: bid is, because if Josh gets his grubby hands on it, 699 00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:31,840 Speaker 1: I'll never see it. All right, I'm gonna end this 700 00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:34,640 Speaker 1: episode with a quick rundown of another feature that really 701 00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:37,719 Speaker 1: transformed YouTube and opened up a world of opportunities for 702 00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:41,400 Speaker 1: a select few individuals, particularly in the early days, and 703 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:45,440 Speaker 1: that is the YouTube Partner Program. This was YouTube strategy 704 00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,200 Speaker 1: that made it possible for the average person to launch 705 00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:51,600 Speaker 1: a channel and to monetize it. Now. Previously that was 706 00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:55,719 Speaker 1: something only the brand channels could do big big media companies, 707 00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,040 Speaker 1: But now it is possible for a person to become 708 00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:02,399 Speaker 1: an Internet celebrity and act really make money off of it. Now. 709 00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:05,680 Speaker 1: I've often mentioned to my friends who claim I'm Internet 710 00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,279 Speaker 1: famous that that kind of fame is largely useless. First 711 00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:13,840 Speaker 1: of all, I'm not really famous. Second, what little fame 712 00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:17,520 Speaker 1: I do have, I can't leverage in any remotely useful way. 713 00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:19,960 Speaker 1: I can't even get a good table at a restaurant 714 00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:23,720 Speaker 1: with it. But YouTube's partner program gave a few folks 715 00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:27,080 Speaker 1: the shot at making a living by creating online videos, 716 00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:30,839 Speaker 1: and before long a small number of YouTubers began to 717 00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:34,720 Speaker 1: earn decent some amounts of money, sometimes more than decent, 718 00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:39,759 Speaker 1: like up to six figures a year making videos. We 719 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:42,759 Speaker 1: also started seeing more viral videos coming from people who 720 00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:46,880 Speaker 1: could create a compelling share double video. There tons of 721 00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,800 Speaker 1: examples of viral videos and YouTube's history, and we often 722 00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:54,880 Speaker 1: saw some of those same people attempt, often unsuccessfully, to 723 00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:59,000 Speaker 1: repeat that experience by creating more videos similar ones to 724 00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:01,680 Speaker 1: the ones that got a big hit. And it became 725 00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:04,200 Speaker 1: clear that hitting a home run with a viral video 726 00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:08,120 Speaker 1: once it was not a guarantee that you'd ever end 727 00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,920 Speaker 1: up with a sustainable business. Though if your video was 728 00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:13,560 Speaker 1: popular enough, you could still make some decent cash off 729 00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:17,000 Speaker 1: of a single shot. It might just take a while 730 00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:19,680 Speaker 1: and be spread out over several years. And that brings 731 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:23,399 Speaker 1: us up to early two thousand seven. Obviously, we've got 732 00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,560 Speaker 1: a lot more to talk about in the history of 733 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:28,719 Speaker 1: YouTube to bring us up to date, so in our 734 00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:31,600 Speaker 1: next episode, we'll look at how YouTube has expanded in 735 00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:34,240 Speaker 1: the last decade, as well as some of the controversies 736 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,920 Speaker 1: surrounding the company. Will explore the bizarre world of the 737 00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:41,480 Speaker 1: YouTube kids app, which has had some truly David lynche 738 00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 1: In scale weirdness going on with it, and we'll also 739 00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:46,680 Speaker 1: take a closer look at some of the battles between 740 00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:50,279 Speaker 1: content creators and the various intellectual property claims that have 741 00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:53,279 Speaker 1: happened over the past several years. Meanwhile, if you guys 742 00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:55,840 Speaker 1: have suggestions for other topics I should cover here on 743 00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:58,560 Speaker 1: tech Stuff, you should let me know about them. One 744 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:00,560 Speaker 1: way you can do that is sending me an email. 745 00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:03,799 Speaker 1: The addresses tech Stuff at how stuff Works dot com, 746 00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:06,080 Speaker 1: or you can drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter. 747 00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:08,440 Speaker 1: The handle for the show at both of those is 748 00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:13,240 Speaker 1: text Stuff HSW Remember on Wednesdays and Fridays, I record 749 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:15,759 Speaker 1: this show and I stream it live. If you want 750 00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,400 Speaker 1: to see the show early and find out what's cool 751 00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:22,160 Speaker 1: in tech, sometimes more than a week before everyone else does, 752 00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:25,480 Speaker 1: just go to twitch dot tv slash tech Stuff. The 753 00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:28,439 Speaker 1: schedules up there and you can join the chat room 754 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:30,879 Speaker 1: and chat with me and and watch as I make 755 00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:36,120 Speaker 1: gooflem ups in between takes it happens. I hope you 756 00:45:36,239 --> 00:45:38,319 Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode. I look forward to talking to you 757 00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:42,520 Speaker 1: with more about YouTube and kind of exploring how that 758 00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:45,759 Speaker 1: site has evolved ever since Google took possession of it, 759 00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:48,880 Speaker 1: and uh, I look forward to hearing from you guys, 760 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:51,040 Speaker 1: finding out what you want me to talk about in 761 00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:52,920 Speaker 1: the future. Remember, it can be any sort of topic. 762 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:55,399 Speaker 1: It can be a technology, could be a company, could 763 00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:57,919 Speaker 1: be a personality in tech. Maybe there's someone you want 764 00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,279 Speaker 1: me to interview on the show, or me to be there, 765 00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:03,200 Speaker 1: someone you want as a guest host for an episode. 766 00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:05,520 Speaker 1: Give me a shout and let me know and I 767 00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:14,279 Speaker 1: will talk to you again. Release soon for more on 768 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:16,840 Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how staff 769 00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:27,280 Speaker 1: works dot com