YouTube, LLC

Type	Subsidiary
Foundation date	February 14, 2005 (2005-02-14)
Headquarters	901 Cherry Avenue, San Bruno, California, United States
Area served	Worldwide (except blocked countries)
Founder(s)	Steve Chen Chad Hurley Jawed Karim
Key people	Susan Wojcicki (CEO) Chad Hurley (Advisor)
Industry	Internet Video hosting service
Parent	Independent (2005–2006) Google (2006–present)
Slogan(s)	Broadcast Yourself (2005–2012)
Website	YouTube.com (see list of localized domain names)
Written in	Java,[1]Python[2] and proprietary JavaScript
Alexa rank	2 (July 2017[update])[3]
Advertising	Google AdSense
Registration	Optional (not required to watch most videos; required for certain tasks such as uploading videos, viewing flagged (18+) videos, creating playlists and posting comments)
Launched	February 14, 2005; 14 years ago (2005-02-14)
Current status	Active

YouTube is a free video sharing website that lets people upload, view, and share videos. Videos can be rated with a like or dislike, you can also subscribe to channels that you like. Videos can be commented on if logged into an account, and the number of times a video has been watched (known as "views") is shown. Users who have accounts can also subscribe to channels. At the moment, Google (a search engine company) owns and operates YouTube. Many different types of videos can be put onto the website, such as educational content, animations, and funny things. YouTube started on February 14, 2005 by three former workers of PayPal.^[4][5]

History |

On February 14, 2005, three former workers of PayPal founded the site. In November 2006, Google bought YouTube. In 2012, an iOS app was created for YouTube. They changed their logo in 2017.

Features |

Videos |

YouTube^[6] needed the Adobe Flash Player plug-in to play videos in the past.^[7] However, in January 2010, YouTube tried using the built-in features of web browsers so people would not need to use Adobe Flash player to watch videos.^[8]

All YouTube^[9] users can upload 15-minute long videos. Users who have used the site for enough time and follow the rules can upload videos that are 12 hours long. A user needs to verify the account to do this, however.^[10] Everyone could upload long videos when YouTube started, but in March 2006 a ten-minute video limit was put in.^[11] The limit was changed to 15 minutes in July 2010. Most video formats can be uploaded to YouTube, and videos can also be uploaded from mobile phones.^[12]

Banning |

YouTube is blocked in many schools because it allows children to search for videos online that could distract them from their lessons, much like how other social networking sites and game sites are blocked for the same purpose. But at a higher level than schools (and in workplaces), even some governments have blocked YouTube access to their country's public, but their reasons can vary.^[source?]

Iran |

On December 3, 2006, the government of Iran blocked YouTube and several other sites to stop films and music from other countries from being seen.^[13]

Turkey |

Turkey blocked YouTube on March 6 2007 for letting videos that were mean or discriminating to Turks and Atatürk, who is the founder of modern Turkey, to be shown, because of a "virtual war" between Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and Turks on YouTube, with people from each side posting videos to hurt the other.^[14] The video that caused the banning said that Turks and Atatürk were 'gay'. The video was first mentioned on Turkish CNN and the Istanbul public prosecutor sued YouTube for being mean to Turkishness.^[15] The court suspended access to YouTube while waiting for the removal of the video. The ban was criticized a lot. YouTube lawyers sent proof of removal to court and users could access the website again on March 9 2007.^[16]

Thailand |

During the week of March 8, YouTube was blocked in Thailand.^[17] Many bloggers (people who have a "diary" online) believed the reason YouTube was blocked was because of a video of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's speech on CNN. However, the government did not confirm or give reasons for the ban. YouTube was unblocked on March 10.

On the night of April 3, YouTube was again blocked in Thailand.^[18] The government said it was because of a video on the site that it said was "insulting" to King Bhumibol Adulyadej.^[19] The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology claimed that it would unblock YouTube in a few days, after websites with references to this video are blocked instead of the entire website.^[20] Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said, "When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban."^[21] Soon after this incident the internet technology blog Mashable was banned from Thailand over the reporting of the YouTube clips in question.^[22]

Brazilian model lawsuit and banning that came after |

YouTube is being sued by Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli (better known as Ronaldo's ex-fiancée) because she says that the site is making available a video footage made by a paparazzi (or celebrity photographer), in which she and her boyfriend are having sex on a Spanish beach. The lawsuit says that YouTube has to be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video are removed. On Saturday, January 6, 2007, a legal injunction ("command") ordered that filters be put in place to prevent users in Brazil from going to the website.^[23][24]

The effectiveness of the measure has been questioned, since the video is not available only on YouTube, but rather has become an Internet phenomenon. On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, the same court overturned their earlier decision, ordering the filters to be taken down, even though the footage was still forbidden, but without technical support for its blockage.^[25]

Morocco |

On May 25, 2007 the state-owned company Maroc Telecom blocked all access to YouTube.^[26] There were no reasons given why YouTube was blocked. But the guesses are that it might have something to do with some pro-separatist group Polisario clips (Polisario is the Western Sahara independence movement) or because of some videos that criticized King Mohammed VI. This block did not concern the other two private internet-providers, Wana and Meditel. YouTube became accessible again on May 30, 2007 after Maroc Telecom unofficially announced that the denied access to the website was only a "technical glitch".^[27]

Australia |

In Australia, some schools, including all secondary schools in Victoria, have YouTube blocked from student access, after fights have been posted on YouTube.

China |

Currently in China the government has blocked YouTube. For several years it has been unblocked but since the past five years it has been blocked.^{[28][29][30][31]}

Terms of service |

According the site's terms of service,^[32] users may upload videos only if they have the permission of the copyright holder and of the people in the video. Pornography, defamation, harassment, commercials and videos that encourage criminal conduct may not be uploaded. The uploader gives YouTube permission to give out and change the uploaded video for any purpose, and they do not have permission anymore when the uploader deletes the video from the site. Users may view videos on the site but are not allowed to save them on their computers.

Localization |

On June 19, 2007, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was in Paris to launch the new localization system.^[33] The interface of the website is available with localized versions in 90 countries, and a worldwide version.^[34]

Country	Language	Headquarters	Launch date
United States (and worldwide launch)	English	San Bruno	February 15, 2005[33]
Brazil	Portuguese	São Paulo	June 19, 2007[33]
France	French, and Basque	Paris	June 19, 2007[33]
Ireland	English	Dublin	June 19, 2007[33]
Italy	Italian	Rome	June 19, 2007[33]
Japan	Japanese	Tokyo	June 19, 2007[33]
Netherlands	Dutch	Amsterdam	June 19, 2007[33]
Poland	Polish	Warsaw	June 19, 2007[33]
Spain	Spanish, Galician, Catalan, and Basque	Madrid	June 19, 2007[33]
United Kingdom	English	London	June 19, 2007[33]
Mexico	Spanish	Mexico City	October 11, 2007[35]
Hong Kong	Chinese, and English	Hong Kong	October 17, 2007[36]
Taiwan	Chinese	Taipei	October 18, 2007[37]
Australia	English	Sydney	October 22, 2007[38]
New Zealand	English	Auckland	October 22, 2007[38]
Canada	English, and French	Toronto	November 6, 2007[39]
Germany	German	Berlin	November 8, 2007[40]
Russia	Russian	Moscow	November 13, 2007[41]
South Korea	Korean	Seoul	January 23, 2008[42]
India	Hindi, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu	Mumbai	May 7, 2008[43]
Israel	Hebrew, Arabic, and English	Tel Aviv	September 16, 2008[44]
Czech Republic	Czech	Prague	October 9, 2008[45]
Sweden	Swedish	Stockholm	October 22, 2008[46]
South Africa	Afrikaans, Zulu, and English	Johannesburg	May 17, 2010[47]
Argentina	Spanish	Buenos Aires	September 8, 2010[48]
Algeria	Arabic, and French	Algiers	March 9, 2011[49]
Egypt	Arabic	Cairo	March 9, 2011[49]
Jordan	Arabic	Amman	March 9, 2011[49]
Morocco	Arabic, and French	Rabat	March 9, 2011[49]
Saudi Arabia	Arabic, and English	Riyadh	March 9, 2011[49]
Tunisia	Arabic, and French	Tunis	March 9, 2011[49]
Yemen	Arabic	Sana‘a	March 9, 2011[49]
Kenya	Swahili, and English	Nairobi	September 1, 2011[50]
Philippines	Filipino, and English	Quezon City	October 13, 2011[51]
Singapore	Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil	Singapore City	October 20, 2011[52]
Belgium	French, Dutch, and German	Antwerp	November 11, 2011[53]
Colombia	Spanish	Bogota	November 30, 2011[54]
Uganda	English, and Swahili	Kampala	December 2, 2011[55]
Nigeria	English	Lagos	December 7, 2011[56]
Chile	Spanish	Santiago	January 10, 2012[6]
Hungary	Hungarian	Budapest	March 12, 2012[57]
Malaysia	Malay, and English	Kuala Lumpur	March 22, 2012[58]
Peru	Spanish	Lima	March 25, 2012[59]
United Arab Emirates	Arabic, and English	Dubai	March 29, 2012[60]
Greece	Greek	Athens	May 1, 2012[61]
Indonesia	Indonesian, and English	Jakarta	May 17, 2012[62]
Ghana	English	Accra	June 5, 2012[63]
Senegal	French, and English	Dakar	July 4, 2012[64]
Turkey	Turkish	Istanbul	October 1, 2012[65]
Ukraine	Ukrainian, and Russian	Kiev	December 1, 2012[66]
Denmark	Danish	Copenhagen	February 1, 2013[67]
Finland	Finnish	Helsinki	February 1, 2013[68]
Norway	Norwegian	Oslo	February 1, 2013[69]
Switzerland	German, French, and Italian	Zurich	March 29, 2013[70]
Austria	German	Vienna	March 29, 2013[71]
Romania	Romanian	Bucharest	April 18, 2013[72]
Slovakia	Slovak	Bratislava	April 25, 2013[73]
Portugal	Portuguese	Lisbon	April 25, 2013[74]
Bahrain	Arabic	Manama	August 16, 2013[75]
Kuwait	Arabic	Kuwait City	August 16, 2013[75]
Oman	Arabic	Muscat	August 16, 2013[75]
Qatar	Arabic	Doha	August 16, 2013[75]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian	Sarajevo	March 17, 2014[76]
Bulgaria	Bulgarian	Sofia	March 17, 2014[77]
Croatia	Croatian	Zagreb	March 17, 2014[78]
Estonia	Estonian	Tallinn	March 17, 2014[79]
Latvia	Latvian	Riga	March 17, 2014[80]
Lithuania	Lithuanian	Vilnius	March 17, 2014[81]
Macedonia	Macedonian, Albanian, Serbian, and Turkish	Skopje	March 17, 2014[82]
Montenegro	Serbian, and Croatian	Podgorica	March 17, 2014[83]
Serbia	Serbian	Belgrade	March 17, 2014[84]
Slovenia	Slovenian	Ljubljana	March 17, 2014[85]
Thailand	Thai	Bangkok	April 1, 2014[86]
Lebanon	Arabic, and French	Beirut	May 1, 2014[75]
Puerto Rico	Spanish, and English	San Juan	August 23, 2014[87]
Vietnam	Vietnamese	Hanoi	October 1, 2014[88]
Libya	Arabic	Tripoli	February 1, 2015[89]
Iceland	Icelandic	Reykjavik	June 2, 2015[90]
Luxembourg	French, and German	Luxembourg	June 2, 2015[91]
Tanzania	Swahili, and English	Dodoma	June 2, 2015[92]
Zimbabwe	English	Harare	June 2, 2015[93]
Azerbaijan	Azerbaijani	Baku	October 12, 2015
Belarus	Russian	Minsk	October 12, 2015
Georgia	Georgian	Tbilisi	October 12, 2015
Kazakhstan	Kazakh	Astana	October 12, 2015
Nepal	Nepali	Kathmandu	January 12, 2016
Pakistan	Urdu, and English	Karachi	January 12, 2016
Sri Lanka	Sinhala, and Tamil	Colombo	January 12, 2016
Iraq	Arabic	Baghdad	?, 2016
Jamaica	English	Kingston	August 1, 2016
Mauritius	English, and French	Port Louis	October 12, 2015
Malta	English	Valletta	June 24, 2018

Testing language |

The interface of the YouTube website is available in 76 language versions including, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Bengali, Burmese, Khmer, Kyrgyz, Laotian, Mongolian, Persian and Uzbek, which do have local channel versions.

References |

Other websites |

Wikinews has news related to this article: Dove ad viewed more than 3 million times on YouTube

Wikinews has news related to this article: New Zealand school children put fight videos on YouTube

• YouTube.com


• YouTube mobile site


• YouTube Blog


• YouTube founders comment on the Google.com acquisition of YouTube