ISTANBUL – YouTube, the world’s biggest video-sharing platform with over two billion active users, turned 19 this month.
Founded on Feb. 14, 2005 by three entrepreneurs, it was acquired by the technology giant Google for USD1.65 billion slightly over a year and a half after its inception.
Serving as a staple in the Google ecosystem since 2006, the platform boasts 2.7 billion active users as of 2024, which is expected to reach 2.85 billion in 2025, according to data compiled by Anadolu.
A little more than half of netizens worldwide visit YouTube at least once a month, with the platform registering around 113 billion monthly visits.
Its ad-free version, YouTube Premium, and its sidekick YouTube Music recently hit 100 million users worldwide.
YouTube generates around USD30 billion in annual ad revenue, which makes up its main source of income.
India ranked first on the list of countries with the most YouTube users as of January this year with 462 million, followed by the US with 239 million.
Türkiye meanwhile ranks 11th with 57.5 million active users.
Roughly 46.1 percent of the platform’s users are women and 53.
9 percent are men, and with a total of 720,000 hours of videos uploaded daily to the platform, the largest age group using YouTube is between 15 and 45.
Users watch over a billion hours of video per day.
MrBeast becomes the highest-earning content creator
The video-sharing platform is deemed an important source of income for content creators, also called YouTubers, who may be a person, group of people, or even a corporation.
US-based YouTuber MrBeast, a content creator working with a group of people to create challenges involving thousands of dollars, currently ranks first on the list of highest generated revenue on the platform, earning around USD54 million per year according to 2022 data.
He is followed by Jake Paul, another US-based vlogger, with USD45 million; Markiplier, a video game reviewer and actor on the platform, with USD38 million; Rhett and Link, an entertainer duo, with USD30 million; and Unspeakable, a creator who does challenges for his audience, with USD28.5 million. (Anadolu)
