YouTube statistics YouTube Stats (Image Source: YouTube) In 2011, it was estimated that 99% of YouTube views came from just 30% of videos , meaning the social media giant relied on a select few content producers to drive the majority of traffic. However, this revelation doesn't seem to have discouraged the average YouTube user much from uploading content. YouTube Financial Facts YouTube became Google's second acquisition in 2006, when the tech giant purchased the video content platform for $1.65 billion . At the time the price was staggering and quite a few analysts agreed that Google had gone crazy for such a purchase. That is, of course, until Facebook acquired Instagram for a similar price . As The Ringer wrote in 2016 , A decade later, however, the purchase of YouTube is widely considered one of the best consumer technology acquisitions ever.

Although Bank of America Merrill Lynch valued YouTube at $70 billion or more in 2016, there is uncertainty about Country Email List the company's profit levels. Mahaney wrote in a research note last year, Alphabet doesn't disclose how much money YouTube is making, but RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney estimates YouTube's revenue has reached $10 billion a year and is growing as much as 40% a year. The growth makes YouTube' essentially one of the strongest assets on the Internet today. The problem YouTube faces is that it is an expensive operation to run due to content rights, massive bandwidth, storage, and processing costs.



YouTube is known for being tough on copyright infringement and often removes videos that violate copyright law (such as DMCA violations for using unlicensed music). In support of intellectual property, YouTube has paid $2 billion to rights holders since 2007. Advertising on YouTube The first advertisements on YouTube were launched in August 2007. However, YouTube is exceptionally secretive about its advertising revenue numbers. However, one business analyst estimates that YouTube would have earned $15 billion in advertising revenue in 2018. YouTube is also estimated to account for about 6% of Google's advertising revenue . Unlike Snapchat , which many say doesn't pay enough attention to their influencers, YouTube is very careful about its relationship with its content creators, as well as their fans.