Institutional Context

'YouTube' 

• 3 former paypal employees created it in Feb 2005
• In Nov 2006 'Youtube' was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion and now operates as a subsidary for Google.
• The company is based in San Bruno, CA
• Uses Adobe flash video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content. Inc: movie clips, TV clips, music videos.
• Most of the content is uploaded by individuals although media coporations (Inc: CBS,BBC and UMG) offer their material as part of the 'YouTube' partnership programme.
• Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jaued Karim set 'YouTube' up and Chen and Karim studied computer science together at University of Lllinuis at Urbana-Champaign.
• Began as a venture-funded technology start up, from a US$11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital.
• Headquarters in its early stages situated above a pizzeria and japanese restaurant in San Mateo, CA.
• The first video posted on 'YouTube' was 'Me at the Zoo', this was posted by Karim on 23rd April 2005 and can still be seen today.
• 'YouTube' is the dominant provider of online video in the US and holds a market share of 43%
• The name choice of 'YouTube' led to many problems as there was already a website ' http://www.utube.com/, the owners of this website made a lawsuit against 'YouTube' in Nov 2006
• In Nov 2008 'YouTube' reached an agreement with MGM, Lionsgate Entertainment and CBS which will allow the companies to post full-length films and TV shows, accompanied by advertisements.
• On Oct 9th 2009 it was the 3rd aniversary of the acquisitia by Google, Chad Hurley announced in a blog posting that 'YouTube' was recieveing over 1 billion views a day- worldwide.
• 'YouTube' has made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to post a video that a worldwide audience could watch within a few minuets (Internet Culture)
• 'YouTube' has a slogan: 'Broadcast yourself'
• 'YouTube' is also available in 14 different languages, making it available to many different ethnicities.

'YouTube' however has had some critisisms:

• Copyrighted material: 'YouTube' has been critised for failing to ensure that copyrighted material is not uploaded. A notice comes when your signing up for a 'YouTube' account: 'Do not upload and TV shows, music videos, music concerts or commercials with out permission unless they consist entierly of content you created yourself. The copyright tips page and the community guidelines can help you determine whether your video infringes someone else's copyright'
• The videos are not viewed before they are posted online which makes it difficult to see whether they are copyright free or not.
• Viacom,mediaset and English Premier League all filed lawsuits against 'YouTube' for copyrighted material on the website.
• Video ID checks uploaded videos against a database of copyrighted content with the aim of deducting violations.
• piracy and inappropriate content are also issues/critisisms which 'YouTube' have had.