AFP/Washington
Ten years after its launch, YouTube has become a household name for online video but faces an array of rivals in the market and lingering questions about its business model.
The first video uploaded April 23, 2005 - an 18-second clip of co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo - offered little indication the service would become the leader in Internet video and a key part of the Google empire.
A decade later, YouTube has more than one billion users, with localised service in 75 countries and 61 languages.
Some 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and "every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views," according to the YouTube statistics page.
Google is reserving its 10-year anniversary celebration for May 10, marking the day the site went public, a spokesman told AFP. But analysts and others were talking about the milestone.
"Everyone in the world knows YouTube, even my mom," said Dan Rayburn, analyst at Frost and Sullivan who also writes a blog about streaming media.
YouTube played a key role in the Arab Spring uprisings and other political movements. It has faced bans in some countries, and has faced criticism for being used to distribute unauthorised copyrighted content.
Seeking a business model
Rayburn said that even though YouTube is immensely popular around the world, it is not clear if it has a real business model.
Google bought YouTube in 2006 for some $1.6bn in stock - raising eyebrows about what was then the Internet firm's biggest acquisition - and now generates considerable revenue, but also has high costs.
"Even today, Google will not say if YouTube is profitable," Rayburn noted. "But 90% of analysts say it is not profitable."
Rayburn said that even though YouTube popularised the idea of online video, the videos are mainly "user generated content" that does not attract revenue from users or advertisers.
"To stream premium content like films and television programs, people go to Netflix or Hulu or iTunes," he said.
"YouTube has struggled to find its core business. The vast amount of content on it cannot be monetiased."
But a report by Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne earlier this year said YouTube is "a high-growth, valuable asset" for Google with tremendous potential.
The report said YouTube generated some $4.7bn in revenue in 2014, and that it can do even better by investing in premium content - such as the paid video channels it recently unveiled and other kinds of subscriptions.
"Given Google's hefty resources, we have been surprised it has not been willing to invest more directly in premium content," the report said.
Most popular YouTube videos
Among the billions of videos seen on YouTube since its launch a decade ago, these have been the most popular:
1. Gangnam Style, the music video by South Korea's Psy - accompanied by a horse-riding-like dance that became a global sensation - has been viewed more than 2.3bn times.
2. Justin Bieber's Baby music video with rapper Ludacris, viewed 1.15bn times.
3. Katy Perry's Dark Horse music video with Juicy J, 917mn views.
4. Katy Perry's Roar, 889mn views.
5. Party Rock Anthem by the electronic dance music group LMFAO, 856mn views.
