Born in 2005 from the genius of three PayPal employees, and bought by Google in 2006 for over 1,5 billion dollars, YouTube is undoubtely the world best known video sharing platform.
[Article published on 05/01/2021 and uploaded on 24/07/2024 with new information, editor’s note.]
Created to allow anyone to share videos online, YouTube has always cared for user generated content. So much that it was worth an iconic cover of the Time as “person of the year”, where the “person” – or, better said, “people” – were the users themselves (you can take a look at it here: http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20061225,00.html).
Despite the key role of users and the ability of the platform to connect such users – basic feature of the concept of “social” network –, for a long time YouTube never fitted such definition properly. Just to make an example, a 2015 research by Media in Canada titled “Do Canadians still like Facebook?” in the list of social media included many platforms among which Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, SnapChat and WhatsApp, but it left YouTube out (source: https://www.clickz.com/is-youtube-a-social-network/25701/).
Not that the problem was the definition itself, obviously, but rather the fact that excluding YouTube from the count of social networks meant, mostly for businesses, to automatically keep it out of the social media mix and, as a consequence, out of potential social media marketing strategies.
In this article we will discuss whether and why is YouTube to be considered a proper social media and specifically:
- Numbers and audience
- Social features
- Advertising
Numbers and Audience
With over 2 billion active users every month, who spend an average of 23 hours and 9 minutes on the platform every month, YouTube is the world’s second social network for active users after Facebook. (source: https://wearesocial.com/it/blog/2023/01/digital-2023-i-dati-globali/). Of such users, India has the largest audience, with over 467 million monthly active users. While the United States in second place and Brazil in third. (source: https://www.ranktracker.com/it/blog/57-need-to-know-youtube-statistics/)
As, from a geographical point of view, there is an undeniable concentration in some countries, a similar thing could appear to be also for the users’ age: In Italy, for example, the active audience ranges in age from 16 to 45.
But if it is indeed the favorite platform of the Gen Z, it is also true that is successful even among other age groups: 70% of users between the ages of 46 and 55 regularly log on to the platform. In fact, in the United States, more than 62% of adults use YouTube on a daily basis. (source: https://www.ranktracker.com/it/blog/57-need-to-know-youtube-statistics/)
Here is another interesting fact: for users between 18 and 34 years old, YouTube has replaced even traditional TV. In fact, after Netflix, it is the second most seen platform on smart TV, with 250 million view hours in such viewing mode, with an increase of 39% compared to 2019 (source: https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/youtube-2-billion-users-tv-screen-watch-time-hours-1203204267/).
However, as of today, 63% of Youtube video views come from mobile devices. This means that the majority of Youtube users access Youtube via mobile devices (source: https://leelinesourcing.com/it/youtube-statistics/)
As to the views, already in 2006, YouTube gathered 60% of all online video views (source: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/youtube-stats/). But the platform is constantly growing and the amount of content posted today is impressive: over 500 hours of video content uploaded every minute, which means 720.000 hours – or the equivalent to 82,2 years – of content released every day (source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-stats-marketers/).
Another fact worth taking into account concerns the algorithm: the content that the users choose to watch, in fact, is determined for the 70% by the algorithm itself. But the users – lead by their personal interests 1,6 times more than on other platforms – immediately start to browse independently, exploring and displaying an average of 6,5 pages on each visit (source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-stats-marketers/).
So it is no coincidence that between 2017 and 2018 the displayed view hours regarding “which product to buy” doubled. In fact, 80% of users who claimed to have watched a video about products they wished to purchase, actually viewed such videos before beginning the purchase process, i.e. at the top of funnel (source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-stats-marketers/).
And this makes immediately clear how important the platform is to businesses when it comes to brand awareness and opportunities to convert.
Social Features
Just because of the importance given to the users, and in order to increase the opportunities of engagement on the platform, over the years YouTube strived to implement some features which remind us of those on the most famous social networks.
Account and Customization
As we all know, on YouTube it is possible to create a personal account (or to use your Google account), subscribe to your favorite channels, comment, share and interact with other users. Likewise, your home will be tailored on the content of the users you follow, which is just what happens on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
However, it is true that some functions, such as “friendship requests” or messaging systems never really took off on the video platform. Although they were implemented on the platform for a short period of time, since the summer of 2018 such features have been removed because, as YouTube itself claimed, never fully satisfied its audience.
Sharing and Privacy
As the platform also functions as a search engine, one might think that users’ privacy is at stake when posting video content, since it must necessarily be public.
Actually, the privacy options offered by YouTube when uploading content are basically the same offered by Facebook when posting anything, and allow the user to choose who to share the content with (source: https://www.squirrly.co/is-youtube-a-social-networking-site-2016/).
Moreover, YouTube makes available a sort of wall on the channel profile, the so-called Community tab. On this tab it is possible to share non-video content, but more similar to posts, which users can easily interact with, leaving a like or a comment. Anything more social than that?
Hashtags
Since 2018, even YouTube has offered the possibility of adding hashtags to the captions of the uploaded videos. Their function is still aligned with its parent company main objective: easing the search for interesting content.
As the official YouTube guide says, it is possible to browse hashtags directly in the search bar or to click on the hashtag in the video descriptions to display the related results (source: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6390658?hl=en). Nothing different than Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, really.
Live Streaming
It is not over yet: YouTube also offers the possibility to stream videos live (does this remind you of any other social network?), during which creators can directly interact with their followers thanks to the Live Chat.
YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts, born in 2021, close relatives of Instagram Reels and TikTok videos, are such short videos can last up to 60 seconds and can be shot with your smartphone camera (or other tools) and be then uploaded.
Today, YouTube Shorts are a great tool for several reasons, thanks to a combination of features that make them engaging for both creators and users.
Some of the benefits are:
- Short clips: this makes them ideal for engaging audience attention quickly, especially in 2024, a time when attention spans are often short. In fact, short videos tend to have higher interaction rates, such as likes, comments and shares, because they take less time to be viewed.
- A dedicated algorithm: YouTube tends to promote them by placing them in a specific section of the app, often suggesting them to new users. This helps increase the viewability rate.
- The format: YouTube Shorts are vertical videos therefore perfect for consumer via mobile, a favorite tool now favored by most users.
YouTube and Advertising
Since it is a hybrid platform, it is possible to publish different advertising formats on YouTube: to get an overall view, don’t miss our blogpost on digital advertising.
The opportunity to advertise on YouTube was already launched in 2007. Since then, its growth has been unstoppable. Globally, in 2023, revenues on advertising amounted to 31 billion dollars (source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/youtube-statistics/#5).
Moreover, according to eMarketers, in the United States alone the platform gained 3,34 billion dollars earnings on advertising in 2019, reaching up to 4,04 billion in 2020 (source: https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-youtube-advertising-2020).
As we said, 77% of potential purchasers at the top of funnel use YouTube to search for more information about interesting products or services. So, as always, the rule is to engage the users, catch their attention and push them to action.
A 2017 study by Ipsos and commissioned by Google shows that YouTube ads are more effective at engaging and keeping users’ attention high compared to other types of video advertising such as, for instance, TV spots, with an attention rate of 62%. And such rate goes up to 83% when it comes to non-skippable ads (source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/youtube-statistics/#5).
This is particularly interesting if you think that in 2018 YouTube doubled the number of ads displayed before a video begins. A risky strategy, of course, since 39% of users claim to be willing to go for a paid subscription – such as YouTube Premium – to keep them from seeing ads. However, as for now, it seems to have worked perfectly, as data show (source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/youtube-statistics/#5).
Regardless your marketing goal, content (and the related content marketing techniques) is still one of the key factors to pay attention to: although in 2019, 95% of ads on YouTube are audible, and 93% are viewable (an interesting stat, given the intrinsically visual nature of the platform), ads which employ both visual and audible content increase up to 3,8 times the ability of the user to remember the brand, and up to 2,6 times brand consideration when proceeding with a purchase (source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/youtube-statistics/#5).
This is why, according to YouTube, brand awareness ads (i.e. top of funnel) perform better when the brand’s name appears in the first 5 seconds of the video, while for goals further down the funnel, the best move is letting users be engaged by the storytelling of the ad and letting them watch the video as long as possible (source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-advertising/).
And of course, regardless the type of ad and the level of the funnel you are, a call to action should not be forgotten: it is the object of the advertisement, which gives you measurable data about the performance and success of your campaign.
We have seen what opportunities YouTube offers, how we can call it a social network and why it is worth adding it to your social media mix. Now, all that’s left is getting started. And if you are looking for support to get the expected results, please contact us: we are always glad to answer your questions and curiosities about digital marketing and MarTech.
