YouTube Turns 20: Celebrating with New Features and Videos
With its 20th birthday, YouTube reaffirms its position as a leading video-sharing platform, offering a plethora of new features, improved user experience, and exciting statistics that highlight its growth and global impact, further solidifying its role in the digital world with an ever-expanding library of videos.
YouTube is marking its 20th anniversary with a range of exciting features, fascinating statistics, and hidden Easter eggs, showcasing the platform's growth from humble beginnings to a global phenomenon with over 20 billion uploaded videos.
The platform has come a long way since its inception, evolving from hosting 19-second videos to witnessing over 20 million daily uploads on average. Notable milestones include YouTube Music and YouTube Kids turning 10, with users engaging heavily through 100 million comments and 3.5 billion likes per day in 2024. The music segment has seen significant success, with over 300 music videos reaching 1 billion views, some achieving this feat in under 100 days.
To enhance user experience, YouTube is introducing several new features, including multi-view, voice-reply to comments, and Ask Music, a personalized radio station. Additionally, YouTube Premium users will have access to expanded playback speed options, making video consumption more flexible. The platform is also unveiling a redesigned YouTube on TV app, aimed at providing easier navigation and playback capabilities.
As part of the celebrations, YouTube is incorporating various Easter eggs, such as a birthday-themed scrubber and animation, a celebratory welcome screen, and special birthday gifts for creators. Furthermore, users can discover hidden gems like the ability to long-press on the video player for 2x speed playback, a screen to minimize interruptions, and a sleep timer. Creators can now add music to their Shorts, and parents can utilize the "Approve content yourself" mode for added peace of mind, making the platform more engaging and safe for all users.