The Evolution of Youtube

Former Paypal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim started Youtube in 2005 (Fitpatrick, 2010). What started with a few second video of founder Karim at the zoo has since evolved into a force of nature in popular culture with hours upon hours of video uploaded every second. With that much content at once, it can be hard to know what is worth your time and what isn’t, but since 2005 Youtube has grown a unique and ever evolving community that has used technology to stop the vertical integration of media by big entertainment companies and blur the lines between professionals and amateurs. However, as YouTube has become more influential, the community has become more dissipated and the changes to the website it’s self are partially to blame.

In the beginning, the YouTube community was very tight knit and popularity wasn’t actually all that hard to gain popularity. New genres of entertainment like vlogging blossomed while YouTube also created a more accessible outlet for short films and web series. Now there are many different sub-communities and cross-platform communities on YouTube, and many creators literally make their living off of their videos. But, as short form online video has become more mainstreamed into media, Google has implemented many changes on the website that encourage a more corporate or branded approach to YouTubing and - in some users opinions- made the community worse. In the final episode of Becoming YouTube, a web series that simultaneously gives clever commentary and supportive discussion on YouTube, Benjamin Cook tackles the subject of how YouTube and it's communities have changed. He prefaced the episode "Everything Changes" by summarizing many of the complaints heard in the community:  “Youtube’s too corporate now… there’s no sense of community” and then posing the question “has YouTube really changed or is it us who’s changed?” (Cook, 2014). The many different opinions on change can be seen in his video through the interviews conducted with big name European YouTubers.

Whether it's us or YouTube that's causing it, change certainly is happening fast. It's clear that online video is becoming seen as a serious contender in the entertainment industry. Just this week Disney bought Maker Studios, a very successful YouTube production company, for $500 million (Spangler, 2014). Is this selling out? How will Disney ownership affect the content created by those who are a member of Maker? Will they be able to maintain creative freedom? Is the ever increasing presence of big corporations on YouTube going to continue to make it harder for the typical users voice to be heard?

                                                                                                                                       

Resources:

Cook, B. (Director) (2014). Everything changed | becoming youtube | episode 12 [Web]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/8dKrTkDhGt4

Fitzpatrick, L. (2012, May 31). Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1990787,00.html

Spangler, T. (2014, March 24). Disney buys maker studios in deal worth at least $500 million. Retrieved from http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/disney-buys-maker-studios-in-deal-worth-at-least-500-million-1201145068/