Ever since buying YouTube for $1.65 billion in October 2006, Google has been struggling with how to monetize all of the video being uploaded (now, over a 60-day period, YouTube brings in more video than the three biggest U.S. networks have created over the past 60 years). On the Web, most people rely on two big methods for paying the bills: subscriptions/paywalls and display advertising. Video, because it's so much different than text or anything else that people are currently creating, offers new possibilities. Nobody has demonstrated that more than YouTube, which has incorporated pre-roll video advertising, brand partner programs, promoted content and more.
This new infographic from Mashable walks us through the past six years -- since YouTube's launch in 2005 -- showing just how quickly the site has grown and when the various monetization efforts were launched.
Infographics are always a bit of a hodgepodge of statistics culled from a variety of sources. Here, we sort through the clutter and pull out some of our favorite facts and figures:
- The founder registered YouTube.com in February of 2005. By May of that year, the site had launched in beta mode, securing $3.5 million of funding from Sequoia Capital six months later. YouTube officially launched in December 2005 and was then counting eight million videos being watched every day.
- In July of 2006, YouTube hit 100 million video views per day. Three months later, Google acquired the video site for $1.65 billion.
- In mid-2007, YouTube started to expand, launching in nine countries and starting a mobile site. It was later that year that new models for advertising -- outside of the traditional display ads that can be found on most websites -- launched. InVideo ads appeared in August and Partner Programs began in December of 2007.
- In 2008, YouTube launched an Insight analytics tool and a Screening Room. After lengthy negotiations, CBS and MGM full-length programming appeared in the site. In November, pre-roll advertising started playing before some content. That same month, the site announced Promoted Videos.
- In January 2009, YouTube started allowing ads in seven different formats. By October of that year, YouTube was counting more than one billion video views per day.
- In 2010, YouTube Rentals launched and the video pages underwent a redesign. By May, the site was counting two billion video views every day.
- To date, YouTube has signed more than 10,000 partners, including Disney, Univision, Turner and Channel 4. Hundreds of YouTube's partners are making six figures every year from advertising on the site.
- The number of advertisers using display advertisements on YouTube increased tenfold in the last year.
- More video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the three major U.S. networks have created in the past 60 years.
Check out more Infographics on the Technology Channel.
