Today we can observe the tendency of a constant development of the sites which provide visitors with the opportunity to share their videos with the other people in order to find the necessary and interesting information or to have fun. YouTube is one of the most popular sites among those users of the Internet resources who are interested in different kinds of online video. The level of the competition among these sites depends on the question of the popularity of Google resources and YouTube among the users.
What are the reasons for such a rapid progress of YouTube? It is obvious today that YouTube became “synonymous with online video sharing thanks to its brand strength and loyal user base” (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits). Moreover, the popularity of YouTube became to increase quickly from its opening in February of 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.
YouTube was worked out as a site where people could upload, view and share their personal or professional videos (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits). The trends in our modern society accentuate the people’s desire to share their thoughts, ideas, and the peculiarities of their everyday life with the help of social networks and sites with online video.
In spite of the fact Google had its site Google Video which “allowed users to search captions from TV shows”, it was not as popular as YouTube because there was no opportunity for visitors to “provide the actual videos” (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits).
Thus, there appeared the necessity of changing of the policy of Google concerning Google Video, of making more effective decisions and working out more effective strategies. The site was greatly developed. However, in 2006 there was made the revolutionary decision by Google to buy YouTube. “Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion” (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits).
Thus, what are the peculiarities of developing of YouTube as the part of Google? We can determine several significant aspects of the development of the site. All the intentions of Google executives are aimed at the further growth of the possibilities of the site. Nevertheless, “Google planned to retain YouTube as a stand-alone service while continuing to nurture Google’s existing video service” (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits).
The advantages of YouTube are in the fact that people can upload videos of different formats there, comment them, share with their friends, and give the annotations. The changes in the work of the site and a lot of innovations are directed toward the 19- to 35-year-old group of viewers of online videos who shares video clips with their friends and put links to them (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits).
However, the commercial success of the site depends on the effective advertising policy. “Google executives believed the deal would help transform their company into a global media powerhouse and provide new audiences for the targeted advertising that was the lifeblood of Google’s earnings” (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits). That is why “in October 2007 Google introduced a program to include advertising within YouTube videos” (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits). It was considered as a great progress in the industry.
In spite of the fact YouTube as the part of Google is one of the most successful sites, the necessity of its constant progress depends on a number of competitors in the industry such as MySpace and Hulu. Thus, in 2005-2010 “the emergence of competition in the video-sharing market continued to be rapid and Web trends were increasingly volatile” (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits).
Thus, YouTube keeps the position of one of the most influential sites providing online video. YouTube and Google follow the tendency of a constant development and widening of the audience because of the effective policy of the company.
Works Cited
Cool, Karel, Seitz, Matt, and Jason Mestrits. “YouTube, Google, and the Rise of Internet Video”. hbr.org. 20 May 2009. Web.