YouTube at 20: From viral videos to a global cultural powerhouse
The Google-owned video-sharing platform has billions of active users monthly.
YouTube has evolved into a major player in the tech, television and podcast arena.
Few 20-year-olds can say they're worth billions of dollars and have a network of over two billion people. But YouTube can - and does.
"It's been disruptive and transformative for the industry," Michael Markovitz, head of the GIBS Media Leadership Think Tank, told News24.
In March, during a conference to showcase the platform's most significant developments in Switzerland, Pedro Pina, the vice-president of YouTube for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said their 2024 impact report found that the revenue generated from the platform's creator economy was equivalent to 185 000 full-time jobs in the EU in 2023.
"Our mission has been to give everyone a voice and show them the world," he said.
Over two decades, YouTube has reshaped how we consume media, understand the world and engage with public figures: Elusive Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio launched his channel this year.
"Hi, welcome to my YouTube channel" is embedded in our cultural lexicon.
Since the advent of YouTube, unboxing, viral, mukbang, and ASMR have taken new meanings.
Pina said:
We've been at the epicentre of culture. We want to continue to be at the epicentre of culture.
For millions, YouTube isn't just a website. It's a mirror, a lifeline.
A home away from home
"I'm a queer person of colour; when I was struggling with my sexuality, I found answers and people like me on YouTube," Renaldo Schwarp told News24.
Schwarp is an award-winning video and content strategist with over a decade of experience in South African newsrooms and broadcast studios.
"It allowed us to find community, especially for marginalised groups; YouTube became a brand where you can find a community and find yourself in that community," he said.
Lasizwe Dambuza, Ryan Lombard, Mpoomy Ledwaba and Macgyver (MacG) Mukwevho have accelerated their careers and earnings because of the video-sharing platform.
With low barriers to entry, the platform has democratised screen time, transforming passive viewers into active creators.
However, Schwarp flagged that the "flip side" of the low barriers of entry was that those with ill intent could as easily upload their content.
'Safety is a priority; our policies are always evolving'
The Google-owned company has often had to address concerns about hate speech, safety, and copyright.
"We've listened to feedback from creators and viewers and continued building our trust and safety system," Colin Goulding, vice-president of trust and safety, told News24 at a media presentation in Zurich.
In 2015, YouTube launched a children's app, YouTube Kids, with age-appropriate videos and parental controls.
The task is mammoth, ongoing and requires a systematic approach. Content that violates policy guidelines is detected through AI software and engineers.
"Because free expression is at the root of our platform, we generally lean toward leaving content up rather than taking it down. But we do acknowledge what happens in the world happens on YouTube, and the world moves fast."
News24
Five hundred hours of content is loaded every minute on YouTube.
"That's why we don't do this ourselves. We partner with external experts and YouTube creators, and we listen to the community as we think through the risks that are happening online."
Video killed the Hollywood star
Although it seemed the digital world had moved from the living room and scheduled viewing because of the dominance of smartphones and tablets, the tide is turning.
At the top of the year, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said YouTube is the new television.
Smart TVs have become the primary viewing device in the US, even for YouTube Shorts. YouTube is morphing into a noticeable player in television globally.
"Creators are becoming more and more part of the start-ups of Hollywood ... YouTubers are creating their own studios. They have their script writers, video editors, social media managers, accountants and personnel," said Pina.
And as the platform grows, so do conversations around dominance, regulation and how it will impact traditional media in the future.
"The one thing that we know is that the internet is going to become more and more of a dominant media platform [in the future]," said Markovitz.
Like every 20-year-old, YouTube is growing, ambitious, forging full-steam ahead and has its eyes firmly set on the future.
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Business Insider
30 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Inside a matcha rave, where Gen Zers go wild for ice-cold brews, sober partying, and getting home at a reasonable hour
Starting the event off with a strawberry matcha Stepping out of Singapore's 90-degree heat, the iced matcha was a welcome treat. At least 20 people waited to get to the counter. The matcha with strawberry jam was nicely balanced, sweet and bitter, and it went down all too quickly. There was also a bar outside the main party venue, where people could buy other drinks at their own expense. Matcha, made almost exclusively in Japan from green tea leaves, has exploded in popularity globally and become a TikTok obsession. It's so popular that Japanese suppliers are fretting over a shortage. To cope with the overwhelming supply, suppliers have raised prices and set order limits. A long queue for the complimentary matcha But there was plenty of matcha at the rave. Gill, the 23-year-old organizer who graduated from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University last year, said she wanted to capitalize on the hype and attract people who love the drink. And it worked. Yuhan Aw, a 21-year-old college student who attended the event with her friends, said she's become obsessed with matcha over the past year. What started with a love of matcha ice cream soon became a lifestyle — she's bought the whisk, bowl, powder, and everything needed to brew her own cups of strawberry and mango matcha drinks. She said that while she enjoyed an occasional night out with drinks, she was happy to try an alternative form of partying. It's not just Singapore. Younger people are drinking less booze. Per a Gallup poll on alcohol consumption trends released on August 13, the number of adults in the US between the ages of 18 to 35 who reported that they drink alcohol fell from 59% in 2023 to 50% in 2025. Party hard, go to sleep early The attendees, a mix of Gen Zers and millennials, came ready to rave, dressed in everything from sage green linen to latex bustier tops. They danced to mixes by local DJs — Vijay Singh, Liana Azman, and Shahan, Gill's co-organizer. Shahan, 24, has been working in the Singapore nightlife scene for years, organizing events and DJing. The music was a blend of pop and EDM, and the highlight of the evening for me was a fiery remix of South African singer Tyla's TikTok-famous song from 2024, "Water." A night out in Singapore is costly and taxing, Shahan said. Public transport in the city largely stops after midnight, meaning clubbers need to take a cab home. And the country's alcohol taxes are among the highest in the world. Daytime, sober parties like the matcha rave solved many of those problems. "You actually make proper connections and friends this way, compared to when you're drunk," he added. "On top of all that, you're still able to go for dinner after, and be in bed by 10 p.m." Rayve Chai, a 39-year-old analyst who attended the matcha rave, said he wasn't a huge matcha fan. But he said he loves music and used to be a big club lover. "Although parties start at 11 p.m., the crowd only comes in at 1 a.m.," Chai said. "I want to go to bed early, or else I won't be able to function the next day," he said. Inclusive for those who don't drink While dancing, I noticed that the tables on the sides of the room were covered with half-drunk, open cups of matcha, which reminded me of bar counters littered with glasses of beer and wine. There was a feeling of trust and safety in the air. Gill said that people under the age of 18 were allowed into the party, albeit with an accompanying adult. Kira, an auditor who attended the party, said she doesn't drink because of her religion. So, while she enjoys music and going out, being sober puts a damper on her night outs. "In the club, everyone's drinking and offering you drinks, especially as a girl," the 29-year-old said. "So this event felt a lot safer to me." Alisha Mulani, a 25-year-old who works in public relations, felt the same. "The crowd is a bit more tame, relaxed, and safe compared to what I'm used to," she said. "I've had clubbing nights where I have seen people get aggressive." There was also a brightly lit area outside the main party room where people could sit around, lounge, and get some respite from the loud music. I stood corrected — it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be Overall, I had a much better time than I thought I would. Of course, it didn't have the chaos and energy of a rave — there was no mosh pit in sight. Hardcore clubbers might find the event tame. But it was much more happening than I'd expected. And with a strawberry matcha costing upward of SG$7 at cafés in Singapore, the $20 rave ticket with a complimentary matcha was worth it.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The future of golf isn't just players; creators (and their cameras) are here too
ATLANTA — I saw the future of golf Wednesday afternoon on the East Lake Golf Club putting green. There, 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry and Ryder Cup hero Tommy Fleetwood lined up their last putts before the Tour Championship begins on Thursday. Just a few feet away from them, a handful of YouTube creators, podcasters and influencers — each with their own camera crew — milled about, reading putts and pacing before their own tee times. Wednesday marked the fourth installment of the Creator Classic, a PGA Tour-developed, YouTube-sponsored event pitting 12 of the best-known golf creators against one another in a nine-hole made-for-YouTube event, on the exact same course the pros will play in their season-ending tournament this week. A few steps away from the putting green, three of the stars of the 'Good Good Golf' YouTube channel (1.93 million subscribers) walked toward the first tee for their 3:54 p.m. tee time. On the nearby 18th, another professional golfer measured out his last putts of the day. A group of kids standing along a fenceline couldn't quite figure out whom to watch — the Good Good guys or the pro … a guy by the name of Scottie Scheffler. If that sounds weird or strange or flat-out wrong to you, well … you're not the target demographic for this particular brand of golf. But a whole lot of people are, and the PGA Tour is trying its best to reach them. 'These creators all kind of speak to their own audiences with their own production crews and their own voices,' Chris Wandell, the PGA Tour's Senior Vice President for Media, told Yahoo Sports. 'The amount of content that has resulted from this, and each one of these, has been mind-blowing … content that we could never have scripted just organically happens.' For as long as there's been golf, the relationship between player and fan has been clear: the player plays in front of the fans, the fan watches the pros. But the rise of cheap video capabilities and easy distribution created a third class: fans who play for other fans. Golf 'influencers' and 'content creators' — purists may cringe at the terms, but they're the ones that fit — play some variant of the game in front of literal millions of fans, demythologizing and democratizing a game that's been defined by its gatekeeping rather than its inclusivity. Wednesday's Creator Classic is the fourth installment of the series that began last year at East Lake, a creation born after the Tour recognized just how much Tour-adjacent work that creators were already doing — player interviews, analysis, even tournaments of their own. East Lake makes for a perfect The Tour Championship provided an unconventional, but ideal opportunity — with only 30 players in the field, the course was largely clear by Wednesday afternoon. (Scheffler, Lowry and Fleetwood notwithstanding.) Fans were already on the course and ready to watch more golf … why not give them something a bit outside the norm? 'It was kind of a test — would the idea resonate with fans? Would it resonate with sponsors? Would it bring new people to a tournament that might not otherwise come on a Wednesday at 4:00?' Wandell said. 'We ran it as a test with no solid plans to do it again, and the creators had a great time. Sponsors said, How do I get involved with that? A lot of tournaments called us and said, Can we do this at our tournament?' And so, here we are. Draw a Venn diagram of golf creators, and all you'd have in the center is the word 'golf.' Creators run the gamut from analysts to comedians, precise shotmakers to pranksters. Each style draws in a different subset of fans — fans who might not otherwise get anywhere near a PGA Tour event. 'My fans like to see my friends and I just bantering, talking nonsense,' said Luke Kwon (379,000 subscribers), winner of the 2024 East Lake Creators Classic. 'I think we tend to act like how they act. There's so much comedy that golf sometimes gets pushed to the side.' Others seek to set an example and open doors for people traditionally excluded from the golf world. 'You don't have to be from the best area, the best circumstances to find a place in this game,' Roger Steele (232,000 Instagram followers) said. 'I think that there's opportunities for everybody. You meet good people, and good people will do good things for you.' The twelve creators invited to play on Thursday represent a diverse group of interests and demographics. (Well, not age-wise. Most appeared to fit comfortably in the millennial/elder-Gen Z demo. There were no 65-year-old Boomers or precocious Gen Alphas in the mix. Maybe next year.) Some were here for the competition, some for the fashion, some for the laughs. But all brought massive audiences to the table. The live stream on YouTube easily topped 20,000 viewers — perhaps not massive numbers when compared to a seven-figure PGA Tour broadcast, but better than other golf YouTube streams we could name. 'We've tried our best to balance size of audience, diversity of audience and golf skill,' Wandell says. 'We would love to host 25 handicaps, but this golf course is so hard. Most of these guys are scratch, and even putting them on a course like this, they're going to have trouble breaking par.' The Creator Classic is the live embodiment of an internet truism: where vast viewership numbers gather, money and brands follow. Virtually all of the players in Wednesday's event have their own sponsorship deals, and many have their own merch lines. Akshay Bhatia, who would tee off in the Tour Championship Thursday, mingled with several creators around the putting green. No Laying Up's Soly even managed to wrangle Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan as a caddie. Oh, and there was $100,000 on the line for the winner. Not a bad paycheck for nine holes' work. It's always strange to see social media influencers in the wild. They locate, and mug for, the camera after virtually every significant moment. Their voices, their movements, their entire demeanor are exaggerated when the camera's on them, which works on a phone screen but is juuuuust a bit too much for real life. And oh, the cameras are everywhere. They're the reason these 12 are here, after all. Every moment — every drive, every putt, every chip, every expression — is potential fodder for content, so those cameras have to be rolling. Producers will be hard at work starting Wednesday evening, chopping and carving hours of footage into easily digestible social media content. 'We're trying to build all types of fans, and we want to create products and data and content for fans, no matter how much they want to consume,' Wandell says. 'A lot of the new fans may not have cable, or don't have ESPN Plus. So let's give them some snackable video content, develop the love of golf.' As for the golf itself … well, let's just say the spotters and fore-right paddle holders got more of a workout Wednesday than they're likely to get the rest of the week. Several players dunked their tee shots on the wicked 15th, and most got a chance to visit East Lake's lush rough. Most finished their eight holes over par — in some cases, well over par. But we have all weekend to watch exceptional players at East Lake; this was about watching men and women not all that different from us — better golf games, sure, but otherwise relatable — handling a challenge that most only get to watch on TV. 'My main goal?' said Peter Finch (753,000 subscribers) shortly before teeing off. 'To not be crap.' Haven't we all felt that way, every single round? (For the record, Finch would go on to finish at +6, two strokes out of last place.) In a very real way, the creators are the viewer's avatar, and that's what makes them compelling viewing — it's not hard to imagine ourselves in that spot, and not hard to wonder how we'd do trying to clear the waters of East Lake. (Answer: probably not well.) 'They're getting to play the course inside the ropes, and the full broadcast and all the production, but they're just as excited to see these guys play the course [Thursday] and all through the weekend,' said Chad Mumm, one of the creators of Netflix's 'Full Swing' and president of Pro Shop, a studio that develops original content like the Creator Classic. 'It's just so important for cultivating a healthy future for the fan base of the tour … The internet seems to be in love with what we're doing, and the engagement's been really good.' The Creator Classic ended up being one of the most dramatic finishes of the year on Tour, with four players competing on a single sudden-death playoff hole, in an absolute frog-strangler of a downpour, for $100,000. In the end, Good Good's Brad Dalke took home the title, soaked to the bone as he bro-hugged his way off the course. Golf is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the creator economy; no other sport combines the diversity of locales with the relatively low cost of entry. One tennis court looks pretty much like another, and racing is far too expensive for a casual creator, to cite two other individual-friendly sports. Baseball, basketball, football — none of those lend themselves to the combination of banter, skill and camera-friendly settings that golf does. This isn't the golf of Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods, true … but each one of those legends advanced the game far beyond where they found it, too. There's room for both creators and players in the game of golf, both metaphorically and literally. As several of the creators left the driving range, working their way through both a thicket of cameras and pros like Justin Thomas, one security guard nudged another and pointed at one of the creators, crowing loudly, 'He's internet famous!' A few years ago, that would have been a dismissive insult. Now, though, it sounds a whole lot like admiration.
NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
Scrolling instead of working? YouTuber Hank Green's new app wants to help
Can a smiley cartoon bean help you stay focused? Hank Green, one of the earliest and most influential online creators, hopes so. The longtime YouTuber, known for his educational videos and Vlogbrothers channel, created a productivity app called Focus Friend with the goal of instilling healthy habits. This week, it soared to No. 1 on Apple's top free apps chart, surpassing Google, ChatGPT and Threads. As of Wednesday, it's been downloaded over 100,000 times on the Google Play Store. Focus Friend allows users to set a timer to get a task done, similar to other productivity tools. The app temporarily blocks distractions, like social media, while the timer runs its course. Unlike other apps, Focus Friend assigns users a little bean, which the user can give a name like Bean Diesel, Pinto or Eda (for Edamame). If the user successfully focuses for the timer's duration, the bean is able to finish their knitting project. But if the user picks up their phone in the middle, the bean gets distracted and drops their knitting needles. The more the user focuses, the more socks the bean knits, which can be exchanged for bean room decor. 'It's an app that installs a bean in your phone. And the bean really wants to spend more time knitting,' Green said in a TikTok video on Monday. 'You can focus for an amount of time, and that will let the bean make socks or scarves, and you can trade those socks or scarves in for more furniture in the bean's room.' Focus Friend launched amid an onslaught of AI slop — low quality media generated by artificial intelligence — and a rise in "doomscrolling" (spending excessive time scrolling online). The app is the latest productivity tool to incentivize a healthy relationship with screen time. Focus Friend echoes products like the popular '90s-era Tamagotchi, a handheld video game that allows users to care for a small mythical pet. Finch, another gamified focus app, has also risen in popularity since launching in 2021. It assigns users a customizable bird that grows when they complete self-determined tasks, like cleaning or drinking water. Focus Friend began as a 'passion project' between Green and developer Bria Sullivan, who is behind Honey B Games' Boba Story, which allows players to design their own boba drinks. In January 2024 Sullivan said she met Green over dinner, where they discussed the idea of creating an app that would serve as an alternative way to support creators (besides creator merchandise). Sullivan suggested a focus timer, while Green devised the anthropomorphic bean and its knitting hobby. Sullivan hopes the app can help people reduce their time 'doomscrolling,' a habit she herself also hopes to break out of. 'Especially with social media and things like that, I don't feel like I'm having fun,' Sullivan said. 'I don't feel like I'm an active participant in it.' Green, who many often lovingly describe as 'the internet's dad,' began posting YouTube videos in 2007 with his brother, author John Green. The two went on to launch Crash Course, a YouTube channel that has offered free, high-quality educational videos since 2012. The channel, which has over 16 million subscribers, touches on topics including biology and global history. The brothers also created VidCon, the massive creator and fan conference that's been held annually in Anaheim, California, since 2010. But Hank Green's online fame has also prompted a lot of self-reflection. The creator has been vocal about his own relationship to the internet, including the downsides, telling TechCrunch last year that he's 'been trained by the algorithms and by my colleagues to be extraordinarily good at grabbing and holding people's attention.' 'I hope I use that skill for good, but I also use it for distracting people from whatever else they would be doing,' he told the publication. Now, with Focus Friend, Hank Green is moving toward 'giving people their time back,' he said in his TikTok video Monday. 'It's about letting people be in control of their attention, not selling their attention to someone else.' The app launched in July but only recently picked up traction after the Green brothers began posting more about it on social media, where they have millions of followers. 'We didn't have any idea that it would get this big, nor did we even have the intention for it,' Sullivan said. 'The intention we had behind it was, 'This is an idea I think should exist in the world.'' Some, like TikTok creator Hannah Rae, who goes by hannahsendlessbookshelf on the platform, were immediately hooked. She posted her reaction to the app in a video, calling it a 'cure' to her 'reading slump.' 'It does tend to be easier for the majority of us to do the 'right thing' for something else we want to care for, rather than just doing it for our own benefit in the first place,' Rae said. So far, she said it's helped incentivize her to put her phone down. She said her sister, a teacher, uses it to focus on her lesson planning, and her brother, 11, uses it while doing homework. While the ADHD-friendly app is free to download from the app store, users can pay for different bean avatars, including a ' John Bean ' option resembling Hank's brother. There's also a subscription model where users can knit scarves to trade for elevated decorations. Green's express goal is to avoid burdening users with ads. Focus Friend is 'very much trying to be an ad-free experience because the mobile ad ecosystem kinda blows,' Green wrote in a post on BlueSky. Aside from helping their bean knit a sock or a scarf, Sullivan said she hopes Focus Friends users are 'taking a break from the noise and having a little bit of peace with themselves.'
