YouTube
901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA, 94066, United States
Overview
YouTube is a video-sharing website created in February 2005 by three former [PayPal](/organization/paypal) employees: [Chad Hurley](/person/chad-hurley), [Steve Chen](/person/steve-chen) and [Jawed Karim](/person/jawed-karim). YouTube enables users to upload, view and share videos. It uses Adobe Flash video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including video clips, TV clips, music videos, and amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. YouTube offers a variety of features, including playback, uploading, quality and codecs, and 3D video viewing. It also offers users the ability to view its videos on web pages outside their website. The videos on the site are playable on both iOS and Android platforms. Unregistered users can watch videos, while registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old. Most of the content on YouTube has not been uploaded by individuals, but by media corporations including [CBS](/organization/cbs), [BBC](/organization/bbc), [Vevo](/organization/vevo), [Hulu](/organization/hulu), Haber and other organizations that offer some of their material as part of the YouTube partnership program. Partners from major movie studios, record labels, web original creators, viral stars, and millions more all have channels on YouTube. YouTube is predominantly an ad-supported platform, but also offers rental options for a growing number of movie titles. YouTube is currently based in San Bruno, California, and is available in 76 languages. In November 2006, YouTube was acquired by [Google](/organization/google) and now operates as a Google subsidiary.
- Total investments
- 1
- Lead investments
- 1
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 11
Sector focus
- Internet
- Music
- Video
Investment portfolio
- Vevo
Led · Equity · Jul 2013
VEVO distributes music videos and operates as one of YouTube’s largest channel partners. The company is expanding internationally—its April launch in the Netherlands brought its presence to 12 countries—and is broadening its product set beyond music videos to mobile and TV apps including iOS, Android, Windows Phone Xbox and VEVO TV. VEVO was the top channel partner on YouTube with 50.2 million unique views, according to comScore. Ownership is held by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media Group. Prior to the renewed deal VEVO’s contract with YouTube ended in April and the companies negotiated the split of ad revenue from VEVO’s video stream. The renewed agreement includes an investment by Google/YouTube tied to continued distribution on YouTube. VEVO is a music-video destination and syndication network designed to leverage YouTube’s massive audience to showcase top-tier music videos. It was formed as a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment and will share revenue with YouTube as its primary distribution platform. The service is slated to launch in the U.S. and Canada next December. VEVO has announced a strategic investment from Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), which becomes a founding shareholder; specifics of the deal remain under cover, though reports suggest a valuation near $300 million. Warner Music and EMI have not joined the service. ADMC is a government-owned Abu Dhabi media conglomerate created in June 2007 that owns television, radio and print assets and has numerous global partnerships; its leadership said the stake supports expanding its global digital-media presence.