YouTube turns 10: what next for the online video giant?

YouTube has been around for 10 years, and look at how ingrained it has become in people’s lives: socially, culturally and even politically.

In my opinion, the best thing YouTube provides the world with is a place to challenge the status quo and exercise freedom of speech. It’s the home of public debates on important topics and it had a crucial hand to play during the Arab Spring. It also provides people with a window into other people’s lives, satisfying the public’s fascination with broadcasting oneself and following closely – and even participating in – the lives of others.

I was part of YouTube’s evolution, as Google’s first video hire outside of the US, tasked with growing the YouTube business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa where it was relatively unknown. However, despite boasting over four billion views per day, there are now a lot of new challengers entering the market.

Facebook, for example, now has four billion video views per day. This is a huge increase and a phenomenal rate of growth when compared to its one billion in September 2014. Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter are also ramping up their video content considerably. In addition, the emergence of new platforms such as Vessel, Amazon’s Fire Box, and live streaming platforms like Periscope are diversifying the market even further.

We are already hearing rumours of Facebook encouraging popular YouTube stars to start uploading videos directly to their Facebook timelines, although they have yet to introduce direct revenue generating opportunities for talent or rights management tools. It’s about time they did.

What does an increasing number of video platforms mean for YouTube’s future? Brands that are looking to engage consumers, particularly millennials, the young and the young at heart, should still value the platform. You can’t ignore the place where the largest and most engaged audience exists. YouTube is still absolutely critical to marketers’ online ambitions, and I believe it should be for creators and rights holders too for years to come.

YouTube has transformed the way people interact with online video over the last ten years: from the way celebrities interact with their fans to the way influencers review products. Justin Bieber got his big break by performing cover songs on YouTube. A trend that continues to open doors to new talent.

Beyonce’s record label Parkwood Entertainment have recently signed sisters Chloe and Halle, stars of a YouTube channel with over 500K subscribers, after their cover version of Beyonce’s Pretty Hurts went viral last year. Cover songs, parodies, and fan-created videos have a profound influence on YouTube and enhance awareness of the original video.

There are over 135 million ‘How To’ videos on YouTube with the make-up, fitness and cookery industries are seeing huge growth through online tutorials. According to a recent ReelSEO article, one in three will purchase a product after watching a tutorial online.

YouTube is not just a viewing platform, it’s a great channel for established brands to work home-grown experts and create engaging ways to reach new people. Ultimately it’s brought the shop window closer to a potential engaged customer.

TV brands have stepped on the band wagon and have been developing specific YouTube strategies. Programmes like The Ellen Show US and Britain’s Got Talent, have both used YouTube for posting content, proving that the platform is only going to further enhance viewer experiences and drive engagement for the future.

At just 10 years old, with 1 billion unique users a month uploading 300 hours of video every minute, YouTube could be classified as a child prodigy. More recently it has given voices to thousands of ‘vlogger’ talent.

The British YouTube star Zoella has seven million YouTube subscribers – more than Taylor Swift – and her book last Christmas made her the best-selling début author of all time. But at 10 years old, YouTube is at that awkward stage in its life when its body changes, its voice breaks and it attempts to understand where it fits in the wider world… Its world is changing fast.

To understand its role now and next, we don’t need to look at the last 10 years, but the last two – specifically the changes in video consumption. YouTube has long had a monopoly over video, but as mobile data costs decrease and connection speeds increase, it has become the key battleground. Facebook, Vine and the more recent Periscope and Meerkat have changed the way we capture, share and consume video.

Facebook’s ambitions are clear, in August 2014, it delivered more videos than YouTube (admittedly driven by the autoplay function). However, it seems that every video platform has to go through the initial ‘cats on skateboard’ phase, and Facebook is no different. But thanks to second mover advantage, the new entrants are quickly finding ways to close the ‘quality gap’.

Facebook is leaning heavily on publishers as part of its Instant Article announcement this month. With the race on for a slice of ever increasing video ad revenue, YouTube is likely to further distance itself from short form copy and continue to do what it does best – longer form content through the relationships it has with the actual makers.

With YouTube dabbling in the subscription model for music, the next five years will see YouTube utilise its talent to create its own, subscription based programming and increase its competitive sphere even further (Netflix anyone?).

YouTube has come a long way since its inception 10 years ago and has made watching video content easier than ever before. The platform’s offering has long passed simple home page takeovers and skippable ads.

Through a unique combination of broad reach, with a range of specific audience targeting options, brands now have the chance to receive a much better return on investment from their content.

Greater return on investment comes from making use of the innovative features the platform now offers. New interactive formats such as external annotations can directly connect the content of the creative with e-commerce, bringing much better direct response opportunities.

Whilst a direct comparison can often make YouTube seem more expensive than other video on demand providers, the level of targeting through TruView formats and the benefit of ‘free’ views – those that watch less than 30 seconds or skip the ads – means that wastage is vastly reduced, resulting in better efficiency. Meanwhile, the insights available through YouTube Analytics can feed directly into planning all aspects of a brand’s campaign, even offline.

According to eMarketer research, video adspend is set to grow by 50 per cent this year; YouTube will undoubtedly be a major contributor to this. YouTube needs to bridge the gap between platforms and make the ability for consumers to view content even easier. The number of competitors operating in this space is growing rapidly, for example Twitter has launched Periscope, while Facebook has launched Facebook Video.

In order to stay ahead of the competition YouTube needs to constantly innovate and consider new ways that brands can reach and engage consumers through the platform, such as partnering with companies to create more branded content.

YouTube has fundamentally changed the way consumers interact with media. When YouTube launched in 2005, it was a simple video sharing platform, but in the 10 years since its inception, it has revolutionised the way we create and consume media and has placed video at the forefront of advertising.

The old habit of sitting down in front of the six o’clock news or focusing on a favourite show is giving way to consumption on demand and multi-screen interaction. We’ve seen brands adapt to this change in the push-vs-pull media flourish, with the likes of VICE, the YouTube-based specialist news channel, attracting over ten million views for a number of its videos and gaining a subscriber list of nearly six million fans.

YouTube has also influenced how we share and promote content; it’s impossible to imagine how the “Charlie bit my finger” video could have amassed over 800 million views without YouTube, or how Zoella could have personally engaged with her eight million subscribers.

The Google-owned platform also offers a wealth of paid advertising benefits including the opportunity to target niche communities and segments. The ability to draw down insight on audience engagement gives marketers who embrace the channel a wealth of information on which to base their content and advertising decisions.