Two Decades of YouTube: Annenberg Experts Break It Down

The internet’s biggest video platform, YouTube marked its 20th anniversary on February 14, 2025. Originally launched in 2005 as a video version of an online dating service, the platform soon pivoted to accepting all kinds of video content. By 2018, YouTube had expanded its presence to over 100 countries.

YouTube today caters to millions of creators, billions of viewers, and has shaped digital culture and revolutionized the way people consume and share content online.

Annenberg experts comment:

Aswin Punathambekar, Professor at Annenberg School for Communication

He researches media and cultural change in various global contexts with a focus on media industries and institutions.

"More than any other digital platform, YouTube has transformed the production, circulation, and consumption of media around the world. Thanks in part to the financial power that its parent company (Google) wields but also the phenomenal expansion of media and telecommunication infrastructures across the world, YouTube has established its presence in well over 100 countries around the world. 

"YouTube’s immense popularity and reach also means that the platform is part of a digital ecosystem in which companies and governments relentlessly track, gather, and monetize users/citizens’ data with little to no regulation and oversight."

At the same time, it is far from being an American digital platform that overwhelms local culture(s) and media industries around the world. Through a series of savvy technological and cultural tweaks – offering an offline playback feature in key Asian markets in 2013-14, for instance – YouTube has evolved into a polyphonic and multilingual platform that enables and at times constrains flows and exchanges between and across the established news and entertainment industries, social media influencers/creators, and millions of smartphone-wielding users.

To be sure, YouTube’s immense popularity and reach also means that the platform is part of a digital ecosystem in which companies and governments relentlessly track, gather, and monetize users/citizens’ data with little to no regulation and oversight. YouTube also occupies a prominent place in networks of right-wing influencers and propaganda in multiple countries around the world. It is also a dazzlingly creative and sociable world in which activist networks – such as those that cohered around the ‘Arab Spring’ from 2008 onwards, or #BlackLivesMatter beginning in 2012-13 – do emerge and thrive for crucial periods of time. YouTube’s 20th anniversary is a good reminder of the work we need to do if we are to make our digital world more open, hospitable, joyful, and just."

Jessa Lingel, Associate Professor at Annenberg School for Communication

She studies digital cultures and explores how relationships between people and technologies shape social change.

“It's hard to remember now how revolutionary YouTube was, but we wouldn't have TikTok or Instagram Reels or influencers at all, for that matter, without YouTube, because it normalized easy uploads of videos.  

Vimeo is actually older than YouTube, but Vimeo has always had a vibe of being for professionals, while YouTube was more about ordinary people sharing everyday life.

Because it's been around for 20 years, it has documented major trends in digital culture, in a couple key ways.  

"YouTube's trajectory shows us the extreme difficulty of content moderation, misinformation, and algorithmic bias. There have been so many controversies around this platform, but their longevity means you can see different waves of approaches to these issues, from flagging to policy changes to tweaking algorithms."

One is the commodification and professionalization of content creators.  It started off with videos that were often unpredictable and unpolished, but now viewers expect content that is slick and highly produced.

YouTube was also an innovator in establishing a model for actively cultivating partnerships with content creators, which other platforms have followed.

Another thing that YouTube's trajectory shows us is the extreme difficulty of content moderation, misinformation, and algorithmic bias. There have been so many controversies around this platform, but their longevity means you can see different waves of approaches to these issues, from flagging to policy changes to tweaking algorithms.

I'm sure YouTube (which, remember, is owned by Google) will continue to integrate AI more deeply into its platform, from content recommendations and moderation to automated captioning and dubbing."