Todd Sumamno
Imagine the world 50 or 60 years ago, looking for an evening of entertainment. You’re probably picturing a quaint nuclear family huddled around the TV set, all watching the same thing: Whatever’s on. This idea of group consumption of video has all but disappeared in recent years. Nowadays, the dad would be staring down at his phone streaming the football game, the mom with her AirPods listening to a YouTube podcast, and the kids’ eyes drawn onto a toy unboxing video on an iPad. This new era is an area of total jurisdiction over one’s own experience with content.
The Power of YouTube
The 21st century has seen a revolution in the way we view content. We used to live in a world where everyone was at the will of the little box in your living room. Want to watch your favorite show? You better make sure you catch it at the right time every week and pee during commercial breaks. Maybe you’re interested in a more specific kind of content besides mindless news programs, game shows, sitcoms, and soaps that appeal to large audiences. Too bad. You’re stuck with the same few options.
As technology advanced, people’s options increased. The change was gradual at first: TV shows expanded. The world went from 5 channels to 10, to hundreds! Some cable subscriptions even allow you to access over 1000 channels! Once this customization started, total control of user experience became inevitable. Eventually, people began getting away from broadcasted TV in general. You could walk to a video store (or a big red box called “Netflix”) and purchase a DVD of whatever you wanted! Soon enough, this evolved into video streaming platforms. Now you could pick from any episode of hundreds of shows & movies any time you wanted! More content than ever was available for immediate viewing at one’s convenience, but the true ease of access and infinite choices came later.
Some of these technological advancements were more popular than others, but none were more popular than the revolutionary creation of YouTube in 2005. It has truly become a hub for viewing any content, business-related or otherwise. That’s why it’s so important to have a voice on such a big platform, and the easiest way to do that is to grow your subscriber base. If you want to get more real YouTube subs at a fair cost, check out videosgrow.com. Their prices are fair, and you will naturally gain subscribers over the course of a few days.
Understanding YouTube’s Success and Content
Instead of a community of individuals having to view the same media, we now live in a bubble where there is more unique content created in a single day on YouTube than one could expect to watch in their lifetime! So why has a new website been able to overtake every media competitor in every market in just a few short years? The answer comes from two reasons:
- Choice – Let’s say you’re a 10 year old looking for content about the latest video games. With TV, you’d be hard pressed to even find other 10-year-olds in general, let alone talking about the content you like. You’re lucky if you even see a child actor as a background extra in a movie. You want someone you can relate to. Someone that actually fits your demographic. In our example, thousands of 10 year old YouTubers have successful channels, and some of them have made millions in under a year! Not only that, but there’s so much content that you can easily narrow down your interests even further, like a 10-year-old video game channel. Within this niche, there’s even more choices! You can find 10-year-olds talking about RPGs, or Xbox games, or first-person shooters! The choices are endless. The extremely large amount of content allows people to make endless decisions about their exact niche. For example, A Beatles fan 50 years ago might have been able to find one television program about music. On YouTube, they can find the Beatles’ entire discography, covers of their songs, and thousands of hours of footage of old concerts and interviews instantly! So how has the platform been able to make each experience so unique?
- Accessibility – This is the golden ticket that gave YouTube the advantage over television and film. The website started with the idea that anyone with a camera could broadcast themselves and share it with the public. Gone were the days of needing to be a famous actor to be seen by people. Gone were the days of discrimination of content. For the first time, it mattered not what race you were, what age you were, where you lived, who you knew, and how privileged you were. All that mattered was your ability to post good content. The technology was on the side of YouTube. As people began flocking away from the same boring TV reruns, more and more people gained access to the internet, and more content was generated for an ever-widening audience around the world.
YouTube’s prominence due to the advent of new technology goes beyond the ability simply to view content and “be a YouTuber”. When YouTube started, many people had access to a camcorder or webcam, but not everyone. Now, almost everyone has a cell phone with an HD camera in their back pocket, and cameras are cheaper than ever! Moreover, public YouTube videos have made it so anyone can learn how to record, edit, and upload content. No more film degrees or fancy expertise in camera work! The platform has made itself so that more people can learn how to use it successfully! With these features, YouTube remains the most popular form of video entertainment on the planet.
The Big Question: Business or Entertainment?
If we go back to that picturesque 1950s nuclear family from the beginning of the article, we have to remember that they lived in a world very different from our own. There was very little fusion of business and entertainment. In fact, there was very little fusion of anything at all. The movie stars seen on TV were simply movie stars, detached from the world of social justice and politics we see celebrities advocating for today. The government did not believe in equality, or the power of the people. Rather, they lived in a world where entertainment was entertainment, the business was business, and the people were submissive to whatever information/TV programming they were allowed to watch.
With the advent of YouTube, and the internet as a whole, all of that changed. Life was in the hands of the people, the creators. Now that anyone can post, anyone can be whoever they want. In the case of business, business and entertainment are no longer a choice, but a union. The hottest brands of the last decade aren’t faceless corporations, but active parts of pop culture & entertainment. YouTube has been at the forefront of this: business/sales and entertainment/content creation have merged into one. For example, you might watch a creator, and support them through ad revenue, or by buying their merch. Even if a creator is a part of a specific niche, their YouTube content (AKA entertainment) is the driving force for business. Once nameless comedians like Joe Rogan or Joey Diaz are now headline acts thanks to their YouTube podcasts. Brands like Nike, Gucci, and even the NFL are releasing more and more content on the site, accounting for the majority of website traffic, and eventual sales. Politicians can now directly address the people through their YouTube ads, and many political movements have been largely fueled by content posted to the site. The changing face of entertainment is not moving away from branding but joining it as one.
