Google came up with that video early on would be a great addition to the search activities, so in 2005 the Google video launched. Focused on closing deals with the entertainment industry for second -class content, and overly careful about what users could upload, flopped it. In the meantime, a small startup was run by a handful of employees who worked over a San Mateo, California, exploded Pizzeria, simply by having someone upload their Goofy videos and not worrying too much about who kept copyright on the clips. In 2006, Google broke up that year-old company and would think that it would find out the IP things later. (It did it.) Although the purchase price of $ 1.65 billion for YouTube was about a billion dollars more than the appreciation, it was one of the biggest bargains ever. YouTube is now perhaps the most successful video feature in the world. It is a market leader in music and podcasting, and more than half the viewing time is now on screens in the living room. It has paid more than $ 100 billion to makers since 2021. An estimate of Moffettnathanson -analysts cited by Variety is that if it was a separate company, it may be worth $ 550 billion.
Now the service is what is perhaps the biggest leap, to embrace a new paradigm that could change its essence. I am of course talking about AI. Since YouTube is still a complete subsidiary of AI-GEOBSEDED Google, it is not surprising that the announcements of the anniversary product have been promoted this week AI functions with which makers can use AI to improve or produce videos. Google DeepMind's VEO 3 technology was after all YouTube's for picking up. Ready or not, the video camera is ultimately replaced by the prompt. This means a reconsideration of the super power of YouTube: authenticity.
Youtube's Big Bang
I had that shift in mind when I recently interviewed YouTube CEO Neal Mohan at his office at San Bruno's head office, California in YouTube. Mohan took over as CEO in 2023 when his boss, Susan Wojcicki, left her post because of a fatal cancer. But first we talk a bit about the history of the company. Mohan reminds me that his own bond with the service started, even before he came to Google in 2008, after his advertising company Doubleclick merged with the search giant. He was struck by how the YouTube founders were first with a revelation that, he says, remains the core of the service. “It was not only that people were interested in sharing short clips about themselves and that it was done without a gatekeeper,” he says, “but that people were interested in looking at them. That was the Big -Bang Bending Point. Our mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world.”
Critics of the power of Google often claim that not only the audience, but also YouTube itself could benefit from a split from the parent company. Just think of what the world's largest video company could do if it was really independent. Mohan, a self -admitted Google Loyalist, does not agree. “I don't believe youtube would be where it is if it wasn't part of Google,” he says. He says that being part of a gigantic company enabled YouTube to make long -term bets on things like streaming and podcasting. When I ask if YouTube is perhaps even more innovative in itself, he reminds me that YouTube has been sufficiently innovative to challenge legacy media in things like live sports, while challenges of competitors who focus on the maker economy.
YouTube has an advantage in the width that Tiktok and Reels cannot dream of … “Everything from a short to 15 minutes of traditional YouTube video from 15 minutes to a 15-hour live stream and everything in between,” Mohan kicks.
It is currently pressing a different advantage: Google's AI technology. The announcements this week vary from fun functions such as placing you or your friends in videos with amazing acrobatic performance or allowing podcasters to make direct TV shows of their audiocovers by making AI visuals that resonate with the content of the chatter. Mohan says that in a certain sense AI is only the latest improvement in service. “When YouTube was born 20 years ago, it was about using technology for more people to make their voice heard,” he says. “With AI it is the same core principle – how do we use technology to democratize creation?”
