YouTube At 5: Beats Networks PrimeTime

May 17, 2010 by JOE WINDISH, Technology Editor

YouTube chose to celebrate its fifth birthday today by announcing it has passed two billion video views a day; that’s nearly double the three broadcast networks combined during their “primetime” evening slot. YouTube said it reached the one billion mark in October.

The celebration was marked by the launch of the YouTube Five Year channel. There you can upload your story of how YouTube has changed your life for their “My YouTube Story” project. The site has an interactive timeline with their picks of the most important YouTube moments and memes. It also features curated favorites from Pedro Almadovar, Conan O’Brien, Vint Cerf and Katie Couric. For the graphically minded, check out their facts & figures infographic. They’ve got statistics galore!

So what about the future?

Since we never could have predicted all that happened in YouTube’s first five years, we certainly can’t imagine what the future will look like. But we do know there’s a lot more to be done. For instance, we want to make it even easier for you to sort through and find the videos that matter to you. Although the average user spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube, that’s tiny compared to the five hours a day people spend watching TV. Clearly, we need to give you more reason to watch more videos! And we want to give you all the tools and support to make YouTube both your career and your community. After all, this is only the beginning of the video revolution. We’re just getting started.

That last acknowledgment reminds us that YouTube’s numbers come from worldwide views, while the broadcast networks’ primetime are within the video saturated U.S. Still, a big deal.

You can find me @jwindish, at my Public Notebook, or email me at joe-AT-joewindish-DOT-com.

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