YouTube Purchased by Google
Even though YouTube has become on of the most visited website on the internet, growing faster than the haplessly thrown together Myspace, YouTube hasn't yet made a profit. All of this changed today with Google handing them an astonishing $1.65 billion in stock to purchase the online video site. The 67 member company will continue to function as they have since YouTube was launched in February of 2005.
YouTube officially opened in November of 2005, with over $11,000,000 invested into the company. According to Wikipedia, "100 million clips are viewed daily on YouTube, with an additional 65,000 new videos uploaded per 24 hours. The site has almost 20 million visitors each month… where around 44% are female, 56% male, and the 12-17 year old age group is dominant."
in August, YouTube announced that they plan to provide every music video ever created for free. To accomplish this in 18 months, they are working with EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and CBS. This most likely translates into "every music video produced by major labels," though this will cut into profits made from online stores such as iTunes. The affects of YouTube has also been felt with ABC streaming their shows for free on the ABC website.
The most watched video on YouTube has been watched over 33.7 million times: