YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform owned by Google. It was founded on February 14, 2005, by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who were former employees of PayPal. YouTube's headquarters are in San Bruno, California. The platform allows users to upload, view, share, comment on, and subscribe to videos. YouTube has become the second most-visited website in the world, after Google itself. In January 2024, YouTube reported over 2.7 billion monthly active users, who collectively consumed more than one billion hours of video content every day. YouTube was purchased by Google in November 2006 for $1.65 billion.
Neal Mohan has been the CEO of YouTube since 2023, succeeding Susan Wojcicki. YouTube's services include YouTube Kids, YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, YouTube Shorts, and YouTube TV. YouTube's advertising revenue totaled $31.7 billion in 2023. YouTube offers paid content such as movies and exclusive content, as well as YouTube Premium, a paid subscription for ad-free viewing. YouTube holds a dominant market position in media players and streaming platforms with a market share of 97.87%. As of March 2025, the most-viewed video on YouTube is "Baby Shark Dance," with over fifteen billion views. Music videos, funny videos, vlogs, gaming content, and educational videos are among the most popular content categories on the platform. Recently, YouTube TV announced it would be offering lower-priced sports and news packages.