YouTube turned 20 yesterday. That first video, Me at the Zoo, is a low-quality clip about elephants. It did not suggest that it was to spawn a behemoth. However, two decades on, that is exactly what the now Google-owned video platform is.
The first thing to note is that it is a quite staggering achievement to have kept a digital platform not just running but growing over two decades. Consider the various products that have evaporated during that time. It really underlines the point. Meanwhile, there is no indication that YouTube is becoming uncool or unappealing to younger users. Quite the opposite.
While competitors like Vimeo, DailyMotion and others continue to exist and have some value, none of them gets close to challenging YouTube’s supremacy. Monopolies don’t tend to benefit the consumer, but in the online video market, there is a clear winner. Being owned by one of the world’s biggest companies obviously helps, but it is a symbiotic relationship. Google and its video service support each other.
YouTube Succeeds Because it Values Creators
A key reason for YouTube’s ongoing success is that, unlike almost every other social platform, the company values and rewards creators, or at least seems to. It’s 50/50 (long-form)/45/55(Shorts) splits are more generous than any of the social networks. This incentivises creators to make content for and focus their attention on YouTube.
YouTube thinks it is the new home of podcasts and has been pushing that for a while. While I like watching some podcasts on YouTube,I still think they are (primarily) an audio product. Call me old-fashioned.
Irrespective of that, in the era of streaming, YouTube is just another app on the TV alongside Netflix and Prime Video. Except you don’t have to pay for a subscription, and that is a very powerful offering. Users don’t complain about the ads either because we are used to having them there.
In the key age brackets for advertisers, per Statista:
As of February 2025, 12 percent of the YouTube global audience was composed of male users aged between 25 and 34 years, as well as around 9.7 percent of female users of the same age. Male users aged between 35 and 44 years on the platform accounted for 10.1 percent of the total, while women of the same age using YouTube had an audience share of 8.4% n the examined period.
Furthermore, DataReportal found that women aged 18 to 24 made up 6.9% of YouTube’s global advertising audience in January this year. That figure was 8.9% for men.
The platform is loved by users in key demographics. It is, therefore, compelling for advertisers. This reality is only going to grow as the next generation(s) grow up. They will come of age thinking that YouTube is TV because, after 20 years, in almost every meaningful way, it is.
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