With over 7 million visitors a day, YouTube is currently one of the hottest sites on the Internet. It's gained the respect of the mainstream American media--MTV, for example, is putting shows up, and the US$12.5 billion advertising industry is trying to figure out how to partner with the site.
In early June when YouTube co-founder Steve Chen returned to Taiwan to speak at the Economic Daily News for the paper's 40th anniversary, he was met by a wave of fans. As this earring-wearing, Western-style "son of Taiwan" left when he was eight years old, his impression of his birthplace is hazy and he only speaks basic Chinese. But the traditional education his parents gave him has proven infinitely useful.
The Taiwanese media and fans all wanted to know how this 29-year-old created in a garage a site that could take on Google. Chen's answer was simple--he just wanted to "solve some problems people have on the Internet."
It seems that at a barbecue Chen and some friends took some video and wanted to share it online, but encountered trouble at every step. There was special software to download, and then it took three to five days to upload them. Some sites even wanted to screen the content of the videos. It was a frustrating experience. That's when Chen and his friend Chad Hurley developed their video-sharing platform on which users could easily upload, view, and share clips as well as discuss them.
"I was really poor at the time," Chen says. He had just bought a house and was in between jobs, and the equipment and broadband connections he'd need for the video-sharing site cost around US$50,000. He had to put it all on credit cards. Fortunately, he had faith that there was a market for this kind of site so he was able to grit his teeth and bear it during that early phase. Gradually the site began to catch the attention of web surfers.
Just 15 months after it debuted in 2005, YouTube had attracted 6 million visitors, 65,000 home-made video clips of every sort imaginable, and over 100 million clip viewings, beating out similar video sites operated by giants like Microsoft and Google. Sequoia Capital took notice and invested US$11.5 million, allowing YouTube to go from a two-man outfit to one with 25 employees.
Moreover, YouTube managed to take 50% of the online video sharing market. Google happily snapped up the company for the unprecedented price of US$1.65 billion.
Chen has arrived--now a multimillionaire, he has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine and the 28th most powerful businessperson by the industry journal Business2.0. He has also been awarded a Person of the Year award at the Webbies, the "Oscars" of the World Wide Web. Chen--who 20 years ago was told by a Taiwanese fortuneteller that he'd never be wealthy--never imagined he'd win such honors.
"It's all luck," Chen says. The year 2005 just happened to be a time when the "Web 2.0" concept of sharing and interactivity took off and when online video technology was developing rapidly. It was also a time when high-quality digital video recording was becoming increasingly widespread. The convergence of these factors made it the right time for a video-sharing site.
YouTube's motto is "Broadcast yourself," but it also has certain terms of use: pornographic and violent content is strictly prohibited, and users can act as monitors, reporting inappropriate clips. Also, videos are limited in length to ten minutes or less so as to avoid violating intellectual property rights. Unauthorized uploading of copyright material is banned.
YouTube is TV about you. Although at present much of the shared content is crudely made slapstick, Chen hopes that in the future, as standards rise, shared video will be accessible on mobile phones and in people's living rooms, and that traditional media consumers will become media producers who create their own films and news. That will be a new age of "Web 3.0," the age of ubiquitous, personalized information.
