YouTube Conquers All

Towards the end of last year, there was a story going around that the video “Gangnam Style” had broken the YouTube counter. While not entirely true, the enduring video did pass 2,147483,647 views, which happens to be the maximum value allowed by the site’s view counter. When the website was designed in 2005, the creators did not believe that a video would be watched more than 2 billion times. Google had to restructure the view counter, which can now go up to 9 quintillion views.

As of today, “Gangnam Style” has 2,237,356,315 views. Since the video is 4 minutes and 12 seconds long, and assuming that every view has seen it all the way through, the video has been watched for a collective 17878.5 years. YouTube also lists that more than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month, over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month of YouTube, and 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

All of these statistics point to the fact that YouTube has become a very popular section of the internet, which makes sense because who doesn't like cat videos? But the site’s popularity, in conjunction with the popularity of websites like Netflix, raises the real question: will internet video be the long lasting entertainment media that kills off all others of its kind?

When comparing Netflix to cable TV, Netflix has huge advantages to viewers that can pick what they want to watch, when they want to watch it. Many have speculated that services like Netflix will eventually be the downfall of television, especially if more hit shows like “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards” only appear on the website.

The film industry isn't safe from the internet either. While movie piracy has always been a rampant threat, maybe Hollywood is starting to think of how to work with the internet instead of against it. After Sony pushed the release date of the controversial film, “The Interview,” it was eventually released online to streaming services like YouTube and Google Play for only $6. This price is much lower compared to the average $12 movie ticket. If more movies go along this route of directly streaming new releases, movie theaters can possibly become an ancient relic.

Even video games can be threatened by YouTube. The most subscribed-to YouTube channel is PewDiePie, a Swedish channel that plays video games. The genre of Let’s Play videos has a popular community on YouTube, where people often play video games and add their own commentary. The style of the Let’s Play can vary between a walk-through or strategy guide process, a humorous and goofy method, or a serious review. Many companies have tried to eliminate or restrict the Let’s Play community, saying that they are broadcasting copyrighted information. As of now, most Let’s Players are still free to continue making videos, some of them, like PewDiePie, even making a living off of it.

Thanks to YouTube, many people live just by making videos full time. Whether it’s Let’s Plays, make-up tutorials, or cat videos, there’s always a niche subculture that will pour hours and hours into these types of videos. If mainstream entertainment follows this trend, other forms of media may start to die off.