Official Blog
New Creators for Change ambassadors and resources are here!
Monday, December 12, 2016
Back in September, we launched
YouTube Creators for Change
, a global initiative dedicated to amplifying (and multiplying) the voices of YouTube creators who tackle division and hate with videos and stories of hope, connection, and understanding. And as 2016 comes to a close, we’re proud to say that YouTube Creators for Change is growing.
We’ve established local Creators for Change initiatives in
Australia
,
France
,
Germany
, and
Turkey
, bringing together creators who have uploaded thousands of videos about countering hate through unity. We’ve opened up sets at YouTube Spaces in New York and Los Angeles where creators will record the first
video-based StoryCorps interviews
. And today, we’re thrilled to introduce our five newest Creators for Change ambassadors:
All India Bakchod
(India),
Cameo Project
(Indonesia),
Dina Torkia
(United Kingdom),
Franchesca Ramsey
(United States) and
John Green
(United States). You can learn more about these inspiring creators at the
Creators For Change website
, which launches today, too!
These new ambassadors will join the six existing ambassadors in engaging their communities on topics like hate speech, xenophobia, and extremism. And to do our part, we’re equipping each one of them with a $25,000 grant to use toward a social impact project of their choice. In fact, this past weekend John Green donated his grant to charity in connection with
Project for Awesome
, a live-streamed annual fundraiser that brings together video creators from all over the world who support charities that, as the vlogbrothers say, “decrease world suck.”
In the coming months, our 11 ambassadors will also help us choose creators who are already making their voices heard on social issues that matter to them. And as part of our original $1M commitment, each of these emerging creators will be given equipment and production grants. They’ll also receive mentorship support from the program ambassadors and an opportunity to participate in educational workshops at our YouTube Spaces.
Finally, to help all those creators who want to use their voices and videos to take on topics they care about, we’ve collaborated with
Upworthy
to create a helpful series of best practices for creating effective social-change videos.
You can find this video, information on all our ambassadors and more on the
YouTube Creators for Change website
. So check it out! And stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.
Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy, recently watched "
This Christian community opened its heart to new Muslim neighbors
."
Drumroll, please … the top YouTube ads of 2016
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
What do cultural relevance, empowerment and mobile all have in common? Each is a prominent theme throughout the 2016 Year-End YouTube Ads Leaderboard - our annual look at the most watched and engaging ads of the year globally. Once again, advertisers delivered spots that took us on a rollercoaster of emotions, ranging from laughter to inspiration to “awwww...,” compelling viewers to both watch and share.
As we reflect on this year’s list, we see ads like Mountain Dew’s #puppymonkeybaby that added to the cultural conversation (because who doesn’t love puppies, monkeys and babies??), while spots from Always and Pokemon evoked a “can-do” spirit.
Mobile proved to be a key platform for viewers again this year. In fact, across the five Super Bowl ads on our Year-End Leaderboard, 81 percent of watch time came from mobile devices, with over 205 million combined mobile views.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, the
top 10 ads of 2016 on YouTube
:
Official Mobile Strike Super Bowl 50 TV Commercial | Arnold's Fight [EXTENDED Edition]
Knorr #LoveAtFirstTaste
Nike Football Presents: The Switch ft. Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, Anthony Martial & More
Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge: Official Introduction
Clash Royale: Theme Song (Official TV Commercial)
Mountainn Dew Kickstart: Puppymonkeybaby | Super Bowl Spot
Always #LikeAGirl – Keep Playing
The Chase – Hyundai Super Bowl Commercial | The 2017 Hyundai Elantra
#Pokemon20: Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial
Skittles: "The Portrait" w/ Steven Tyler. Super Bowl 50 Commercial
Meredith Argeris, YouTube Marketing, recently watched
“John Lewis Christmas Advert 2016 - #BusterTheBoxer.”
#YouTubeRewind: Celebrating what you watched, shared, and created in 2016
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
2016 was the year of the challenge. You did
the running man
,
you caught ‘em all
, you took a moment
to stand still
, you
layered
… and
layered
… and
layered
. We think it’s fair to say, you
crushed it
.
Now 2016 is coming to an end, and you know what that means … it’s time for #YouTubeRewind.
This year, more than 200 YouTube stars from 18 countries accepted our Ultimate 2016 Rewind Challenge to pay homage to the biggest videos, memes, channels, songs, and pop culture moments of the year. Keep an eye out for some pretty epic surprise guests. Oh, and we got Major Lazer to help us out with an original mix too.
Feel like a YouTube expert? Take our
Rewind quiz
to see how many trends and creators you can spot.
It's also time to announce the top trending videos and music videos from 2016, according to time spent watching, sharing, commenting, liking and more. From Japanese comedy and European soccer to big celebrity moments and some of YouTube's most popular faces, this year’s top trending videos represent the amazing variety of creativity shared on YouTube every day.
Collectively these 10 videos have 550 million views and were watched for over 25 million hours. The channels behind them collectively have more than 40 million subscribers who tune in regularly to watch the funny, insightful, entertaining things they create.
Adele Carpool Karaoke
Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen/PIKO-TARO
What's inside a Rattlesnake Rattle?
Nike Football Presents: The Switch ft. Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, Anthony Martial & More
Grace VanderWaal: 12-Year-Old Ukulele Player Gets Golden Buzzer - America's Got Talent 2016
Water Bottle Flip Edition | Dude Perfect
Channing Tatum & Beyonce's "Run The World (Girls)" vs. Jenna Dewan-Tatum's "Pony" | Lip Sync Battle
Donald Trump: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
THE $21,000 FIRST CLASS AIRPLANE SEAT
Brothers Convince Little Sister of Zombie Apocalypse
In music, 2016 seemed to be all about "work," with Fifth Harmony landing the year's top music video (and more than a billion views) and Rihanna scoring the biggest audience in the first 24 hours for a YouTube music video in 2016.
Fifth Harmony - Work from Home ft. Ty Dolla $ign
Calvin Harris - This Is What You Came For (Official Video) ft. Rihanna
Hasta el Amanecer - Nicky Jam | Video Oficial
The Chainsmokers - Closer (Lyric) ft. Halsey
Rihanna - Work (Explicit) ft. Drake
Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza (Seeb Remix) (Explicit)
Sia - Cheap Thrills (Lyric Video) ft. Sean Paul
ZAYN - PILLOWTALK
Coldplay - Hymn For The Weekend (Official video)
twenty one pilots: Heathens (from Suicide Squad: The Album) [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
For even more end-of-the-year awesomeness, check out the
YouTube Rewind channel
.
Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture & Trends, and the YouTube Rewind team, recently watched "
Ultimate 2016 Rewind Challenge
."
A billion reasons to celebrate music on YouTube
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Last year was a bright one for music—after several tough years of declining revenues, the industry
started growing again
, spurred in large part by the growth of music streaming subscriptions. This year, the industry has even more reasons to be optimistic. Even as music subscriptions have been growing faster than any other subscription type, advertising is another
powerful driver
of revenue. In fact, in the last 12 months, YouTube has paid out over $1 billion to the music industry from advertising alone, demonstrating that multiple experiences and models are succeeding alongside each other.
And this is just the beginning. As more advertising dollars
shift
from TV, radio and print to online services, the music industry will generate even more revenue from ads. In the future, the music business has an opportunity to look a lot like television, where subscriptions and advertising contribute roughly equal amounts of revenue, bolstered by digital and physical sales. To achieve this, there is a lot of work that must be done by YouTube and the industry as a whole, but we are excited to see the momentum.
At a time when there’s never been more competition for attention, fans can’t get enough good music. It is clear that this creative industry has two strong engines of growth -- subscriptions and advertising -- and we are honored to be a part of it.
Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer, recently watched
"The Hamilton Mixtape Performance Live Stream."
4K live streaming: Live has never looked so good
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Back in 2010, we enabled 4K video support for the very first time. Since then, millions of videos have been uploaded at that eye-popping resolution, making YouTube’s the largest library of 4K videos online. Today, we’re proud to say that we’re taking 4K video one step further with the launch of 4K live streaming for both 360-degree videos and standard videos.
Supporting this new format will let creators and partners stream incredibly high-resolution video, and let viewers enjoy the clearest picture possible when watching a live stream on 4K-supported devices. The image quality is just mind-blowing on screens that support it, and in 360 degrees … the clarity can truly transport you. If you want to experience it for yourself, make sure to check out the
Game Awards
tomorrow, December 1 at 9 p.m. EST / 6 p.m. PST on YouTube. The entire show will be live streamed in 4K resolution.
4K video isn’t just a little different from HD video; it’s a giant leap. It shows 8 MILLION pixels total, with an image that has four times more image definition than even 1080p video. What does this mean in real world terms? Live streams look better, show a more detailed, crisper picture, and aren’t as blurry when there’s fast action on screen. Basically, 4K makes everything better to look at. And because we support 4K at up to 60 frames per second, creators can make content that looks silky smooth, and more realistic than ever before.
For creators this means the ability to take advantage of an incredibly clear picture for recorded and now streaming video. It’s the kind of thing that can help to push their hardware (and their talent) to create the most beautiful or just plain crazy-looking images and videos possible. And with 360 4K live streams, the sky is (literally) the limit. Get ready for 360 concert and event streams that look sharper, cleaner, and brighter than ever before. If you want more information on how to stream in 4K, just check out this
Help Center article
.
Today’s an exciting day, and we can’t wait for everyone to experience the beauty of 4K live streams from their favorite creators.
Kurt Wilms, Senior Product Manager, recently watched “
BABY PUG LIVESTREAM!
”
More parental controls available in YouTube Kids starting today
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Since we launched YouTube Kids less than two years ago, we’ve seen families across the globe download the app tens of millions of times and rank it consistently among the top 5 apps in the App Store and give it an overall 4+ ranking on Google Play.
Along the way, we’ve also received helpful feedback from parents on how we can make the app even better. Parents have told us they want more control over how their kids watch content in the YouTube Kids app. Today, we’re rolling out a new feature that continues to put parents in the driver’s seat so they can decide what content is right for their family.
Let’s say you don’t want your little one watching a DIY video that shows them how to make gooey slime, or maybe you want them to take a break from watching certain sing-a-long videos. Well, now you can block videos or channels from their experience by signing into the app.
Block videos using the 3 dot menu next to any video or channel
To sign in you will be asked to send yourself a parental consent email.
And the best part is that because you’re logged in, the videos and channels you block in YouTube Kids will remain consistent across all your devices. And as a parent, if you change your mind, you can unblock all restricted videos or channels at once. It’s that easy! This update will be available in: the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malaysia, Philippines, India, and Singapore.
This new feature follows other ways families can already customize their YouTube Kids experience:
Learn how the app works:
When parents open YouTube Kids, we explain upfront how our systems choose and recommend content and how to flag videos. We also prompt you to make a choice about how broadly you want your child to explore—turn search on to access millions of family-friendly videos, or turn search off to restrict your child’s experience to a more limited set.
Timer:
Let the app be the bad guy with a built-in timer that lets you limit kids’ screen time. The app alerts your child when the session is over, so you don’t have to.
YouTube Kids on the big screen:
Watch YouTube Kids as a family on your big screen. Now YouTube Kids is available on your TV, using Chromecast, Apple TV, game consoles or a smartTV.
Age-based customization:
When you first open the app, you can select from three general age groups (preschool, school age or all kids) making the initial home screen reflect videos that may interest children in that age range.
Stay tuned for more to come and in the meantime happy viewing!
Balaji Srinivasan, father of two girls and YouTube Kids Senior Software Engineer, recently watched "
Hexaflexagons
."
YouTube VR: A whole new way to watch… and create
Thursday, November 10, 2016
We’re inspired every day by the videos people share on YouTube. The idea that anybody, from any part of the globe, can create something that all of us can watch, laugh at, cry to, or relate to. Not only has this turned YouTube into a home for just about any idea imaginable, it’s made it the place where
new video formats
,
new ways to connect
, and
new ways to tell stories
are born.
We want to continue to provide you with new ways to engage with the world and with your community, and we believe virtual reality will play an important role in the future of storytelling. More than just an amazing new technology, VR allows us to make deep, human connections with
people
,
places
and
stories
. That’s why we’re committed to giving creators the space and resources they need to learn about, experiment with, and create virtual reality video. In fact, we’ve already started working with some awesome creators, recording artists, and partners who are producing VR videos across a wide variety of genres and interest areas on YouTube.
Want to spend some time with beauty vlogger
Meredith Foster
? Check out an immersive tour of her apartment. More of a foodie?
Tastemade’s
VR cooking videos breathe new life into learning new recipes.
Rooster Teeth
reimagines their gaming comedy “Red vs. Blue” for some fresh laughs. You can even watch breaking news in VR from
HuffPost RYOT
.
We’ve also been working to allow you to have experiences or visit places you might not be able to (or might not dare to!) in real life. Go swimming with sharks thanks to
Curiscope
, get a first-hand look at a living, breathing dinosaur at the
Natural History Museum in London
, travel to Belize with
StyleHaul
, hike a trail a thousand miles away with Daniel and Kelli at
Fitness Blender
, or watch
Tritonal
in concert no matter where you are.
And today you can experience all of this amazing content in a more immersive way with the brand new YouTube VR app,
available first on Daydream
. This new standalone app was built from the ground up and optimized for VR. You just need a Daydream-ready phone like Pixel and the new
Daydream View
headset and controller to get started. Every single video on the platform becomes an immersive VR experience, from 360-degree videos that let you step inside the content to standard videos shown on a virtual movie screen in the new theater mode. The app even includes some familiar features like voice search and a signed in experience so you can follow the channels you subscribe to, check out your playlists and more.
We can’t tell you how inspired we all are after watching the amazing VR videos made by creators on YouTube. We can't wait to see what you dream up next!
Erin Teague, Product Manager, and Jamie Byrne, Director of YouTube Creators, recently watched "
Tour of Man At Arms: Reforged Shop in 360° - The Forging Room!
"
True colors: adding support for HDR videos on YouTube
Monday, November 7, 2016
We believe in the power of video at YouTube. It’s what allows for the creativity, connection, and fun that brings together our community of creators and viewers. And over the last 11 years, we’ve worked hard to push the boundaries of online video. We’ve added product features and made new video and audio formats available to everyone, from HD to 4K video, live streaming, 3D, 360-degree video, and spatial audio.
Today we are adding support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) videos on YouTube. HDR videos have higher contrast, revealing precise, detailed shadows and stunning highlights with more clarity than ever. Support for wide color gamut means colors are more vibrant. Simply put, HDR unlocks the most spectacular image quality we've ever streamed.
Simulated SDR vs HDR comparison (seeing true HDR requires an HDR display)
Starting today, you can watch YouTube videos in HDR on supported devices, such as HDR TVs with the new
Chromecast Ultra
, and soon on all 2016 Samsung SUHD and UHD TVs. If you're using a device that doesn't yet support HDR, don't worry, videos will still play in standard dynamic range. As more HDR devices become available, YouTube will work with partners to enable streaming of the HDR version.
And if you want to watch some amazing content in HDR today, we got you covered. We’ve worked with YouTube creators like
MysteryGuitarMan
,
Jacob + Katie Schwarz
, and
Abandon Visuals
to bring you
great content in HDR
.
Starting today, any creator can upload HDR videos to YouTube. You can learn more about uploading HDR videos
here
. To make sure creators can tell awesome stories with even more color, we’ve been working with companies across the industry. We’ve worked with the
DaVinci Resolve
team to make uploading HDR just as simple as SDR videos to YouTube. We’ve also outfitted the YouTube Spaces in LA and NYC with all the gear needed to produce great HDR content.
HDR adds a whole new dimension of creative freedom and visual spectacle, and we've barely scratched the surface of what this means for storytelling. We can't wait to see the amazing videos you're going to make with HDR.
Steven Robertson, Software Engineer, recently watched “
History of Japan
,” and Sanjeev Verma, Product Manager, recently watched “
Flaming Wire Wool
.”
Google and YouTube can help keep you informed on Election Day
Monday, November 7, 2016
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
It’s Election Day Eve, the day before before millions of people across the U.S. will head to the polls and cast votes for their elected officials. But before you get to the ballot box -- and head out with that sticker! -- check Google to get the information on where to vote and election results.
Starting when the polls close on Election Day, you will be able to find U.S. election results integrated right into your Google searches in over 30 languages around the world. You’ll also be able to see detailed updates and results of the Presidential, Senatorial, Congressional, Gubernatorial races as well as state-level referenda and ballot propositions.
For the past several months, Google has helped people find information about the democratic process: our search results have helped voters
register
and explained the voting process with information on
how to vote
,
who’s on their ballot
, and how to
find their local polling place
in both English and Spanish. Since releasing these in-depth search results, we've seen millions of people engage with these tools on Google -- there's even been a startling 233% increase in traffic for "how to vote" compared with 2012. In addition to “how to vote,” Americans are actively searching for “where to vote” -- particularly in battleground states, as depicted in these county-by-county breakdowns:
Over the past few weeks viewers spent over 20 million hours watching - and rewatching - the presidential debate live streams on YouTube. Tomorrow, YouTube will be live streaming election results coverage from more news organizations than ever before. Starting at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 8, tune in to live coverage from
NBC
,
PBS
,
MTV
,
Bloomberg
,
Telemundo
and
The Young Turks
to keep up with all of the action as it happens.
Complex News
will also be delivering live coverage during a special election event from YouTube Space NY. And to close out YouTube’s
#voteIRL
campaign, creators and fans have been posting their
#voteIRL selfie
to mark that they’re going to vote. And tune in to some special voting reminder PSAs starring
POTUS
and some familiar-looking
furry friends
.
Whether you voted early, plan to head to the polls tomorrow, host an Election Night watch party, or live stream the victory speech from America’s new President-Elect, we’re here to help. From the ballot box to tomorrow’s late-night returns, we hope Google’s tools help guide you through Election Day in a simple, clear and informative way.
And one last thing: don’t forget to
vote
. It matters.
Posted by Shashi Thakur, VP Engineering, Google Search
The Clash Royale King’s Cup, live on YouTube Gaming
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Sound the horns! The King has declared a tournament to host the most skilled Clash Royale players in the land. Who among you can beat his champions and take the King’s Cup?
We are proud to present the
King’s Cup Live on YouTube Gaming
, a first-of-its-kind major tournament event featuring the second largest mobile title on YouTube this year, Clash Royale. The tournament will take place on Sunday, November 6, live in Los Angeles with a prize pool of $100,000.
Competitors from all over the world will attend this open event to qualify to play against eight of the top Clash Royale creators from YouTube. Come sharpen your swords and ride your hogs and take down our legendary Clash Royale creators:
Alvaro845
ClashWithAsh
Chief Pat
Ddotty
GamingWithMolt
Godson
Nickatnyte
Orange Juice
Can't battle? No worries! Watch the tournament live exclusively on
YouTube Gaming
and
YouTube
. There'll be awesome gameplay, fun interviews, and even opportunities to win prizes. Running alongside the tournament will be a limited time, in-game “King’s Cup Special Event Challenge” where players can join for free and play with cards they haven’t yet unlocked! This special event will be available on iOS and Android between Friday, November 4, and Sunday, November 6.
Join along with our commentary team for this Royale event in coordination with YouTube, Google Play and Supercell at
https://gaming.youtube.com/kingscup
or
https://www.youtube.com/clashroyale
.
Lester Chen, Head of eSports Content & Partnerships, recently watched the “
2016 League of Legends World Championships
.”
#YTMehrMusik: More music from artists you love on YouTube in Germany
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Today is a big day for music in Germany. YouTube has reached a landmark agreement with the Germany-based music rights organization, GEMA, meaning that starting today, more music will be available on YouTube in Germany. This is a win for music artists around the world, enabling them to reach new and existing fans in Germany, while also earning money from the advertising on their videos. And for YouTube users in Germany, who will no longer see a blocking message on music content that contains GEMA repertoire, for the first time in seven years.
This agreement reflects a long-held commitment that composers, songwriters, and publishers should be paid fairly, while ensuring fans can enjoy their favorite songs and discover new music on YouTube. That commitment has helped YouTube evolve into an important source of promotion and revenue for musicians. As such, we continue to invest in our rights management system, Content ID, to protect rights owners while continuing to innovate and create new and exciting YouTube features such as VR and 360, that can heighten the music experience on YouTube even more.
From AnnenMayKantereit to Rolf Zuckowski, we heartily welcome German artists and songwriters from A-to-Z to YouTube. And to our YouTube community, enjoy the music!
Christophe Muller, YouTube’s Head of International Music Partnerships, recently watched “
Best Friends Challenge with Justin Timberlake
.”
U.S. election results LIVE on YouTube
Monday, October 31, 2016
From candidates announcing their
run for office
to the
political conventions
, you’ve come to YouTube to get informed on the U.S. election.
In fact, over the past few weeks you spent over 20 million hours watching - and rewatching - the presidential debate live streams on YouTube. That’s the equivalent of over 2,288 years of time!
With just over a week until election day, all eyes are on the candidates as they work to earn your vote. As in 2012, YouTube is back live streaming election results coverage and this year, you can choose from more news organizations than ever before.
Head to YouTube starting at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 8, and select your favorite news channel to follow all the action:
NBC News
PBS
MTV
Bloomberg
Telemundo
The Young Turks
Also, tune in to a special election night event at YouTube Space NY, where host
Complex News
will deliver live results coverage and celebrate the momentous occasion.
If you haven’t already sent in your ballot, head to Google, search “
how to vote
” and get all the info you need to make your voice heard.
Brandon Feldman, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched ”
U.S. Government & Politics
”
Bringing the StoryCorps experience to video through YouTube Creators for Change
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Diversity is our nation’s strength, yet in America today, we are seeing new levels of fear and misunderstanding. It’s never been more important to sit down and listen to each other -- hear each other’s stories, learn about what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes, and remember what makes us unique and what we all have in common.
That’s why we launched our
YouTube Creators for Change
program back in September, an initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of YouTube role models who are tackling division and hate by creating videos that share stories of hope, connection and understanding. Today we’re introducing our latest initiative in this program: a new partnership with
StoryCorps
, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to recording and archiving oral stories from all Americans.
Through this new collaboration, we’re teaming up with StoryCorps to help start a national conversation about identity and belonging in America, beginning with a production program at the YouTube Spaces in L.A. and N.Y. in December. At these Spaces, we will create custom-built sets that look and feel like the iconic StoryCorps recording booths where participating creators will help extend StoryCorps recordings to video. These creators will be able to come in with a friend, loved one or person they respect to talk about their experiences in our country as it stands today - both the good and bad.
As part of YouTube Creators for Change, we’re also proud to support the StoryCorps' campaign #WhoWeAre, created in partnership with Upworthy. The #WhoWeAre series features animated stories of everyday Americans selected from the StoryCorps archive that help us remember our best selves.
We hope these conversations will inspire people around the country to reflect and share their own personal stories about who they are and who they want to be. We’re thrilled to be working with StoryCorps on bringing their approach to listening and recognizing our shared humanity to video, and can’t wait to share more on our work together in the coming months.
Juniper Downs, Head of Public Policy for YouTube, recently watched
#WhoWeAre
.
The three 2016 U.S. presidential debates rank as the most-viewed political live streams of all time
Thursday, October 20, 2016
This year, more news organizations live streamed the U.S. presidential debates on YouTube than ever before, and we saw record-breaking interest from the YouTube community. The 2016 presidential debates rank as the three most-viewed political live streams of all time. In total, these debates drove 8.5M live watch hours and averaged 1.7M live peak concurrent viewers.
Last night’s final presidential debate delivered:
2.8M live watch hours, nearly five times higher than 2012
1.7M live peak concurrent viewers, over four times higher than 2012
Over 140 million views on all debate-related videos
Elections-related YouTube searches are also at an all-time high. Searches for U.S. election content are up 547 percent compared to this time in the last presidential race.
Throughout the debates, millions of viewers tuned in and stayed engaged. The average live session duration was 22 minutes across all three presidential debates and concurrent viewership consistently peaked towards the end of the debate.
In true YouTube fashion, Americans weren’t the only ones involved. Have a look at who was watching the most around the globe:
With only 18 days until U.S. Election Day voters are preparing to head to the polls. If the voter registration deadline in your state hasn’t passed, register today! It only takes
1 min., 34 seconds
.
Kurt Wilms, Product Lead, Live Streaming at YouTube, recently watched “
The Third Presidential Debate
.”
Tune in to the final presidential debate, live on YouTube
Monday, October 17, 2016
With just 21 days remaining, the U.S. presidential election is top of mind for voters across the country.
Over the past three debates you’ve come to YouTube to follow live coverage from more news organizations than ever before. And Wednesday’s third and final presidential debate will be no exception.
Pick your favorite news channel and tune in to the debate starting at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, October 19. Here is where you can watch live on YouTube:
NBC News
CBS News
Fox News
PBS
C-SPAN
Washington Post
New York Times
Univision
Telemundo
You can also join
The Young Turks
and
Complex News
on the ground reporting from Las Vegas, Nev., using YouTube Live directly from their phones.
Can’t decide on one stream? Check out
youtube.com/news
to follow all of the coverage.
And if the voter registration deadline in your state hasn’t passed, register today! It only takes
1 min., 34 seconds
.
Brandon Feldman, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “
How Voters Decide
.”
Helping creators connect with brands
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Nine years ago, YouTube launched its
Partner Program
with the goal of helping creators earn advertising revenue while connecting their innovative content to audiences around the world. Every year, more and more brands are making YouTube essential to their marketing strategy. In fact, in the last year alone, the top 100 advertisers have increased their spend on YouTube video ads by 50 percent.
As brands continue to embrace the value of YouTube, they’re also taking their investments one step further, partnering with creators on
branded content opportunities
such as product placements, promotions and sponsorships. As we look to the future, we want even more creators and brands to come together and realize the benefits of these creative collaborations.
Today, we’re excited to announce that Google has acquired
FameBit
-- a technology platform company that helps creators and brands find and work with each other through sponsorships and paid promotion. We believe that Google’s relationship with brands and YouTube’s partnerships with creators, combined with FameBit’s technology and expertise, will help increase the number of branded content opportunities available, bringing even more revenue into the online video community.
Creators will always have the choice in how they work with brands, and there are many great companies who provide this service today. This acquisition doesn’t change that. Our hope is that FameBit’s democratized marketplace will allow creators of all sizes to directly connect with brands, as well as provide a great technology solution for companies like MCNs and agencies to find matches for their creators and brand partners.
We look forward to seeing FameBit and the entire branded content space thrive as we continue to support the success and creativity of the creator community.
Ariel Bardin, Vice President, Product Management recently watched "
New Yorkers Share their Story for a Dollar
."
Second presidential debate-related videos rack up 40 percent more views than the first
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Sunday’s highly-anticipated debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump drew new levels of interest from the YouTube community. The closely watched live debate and on-demand videos surrounding it generated over 124M views since Sunday, representing a 40 percent increase compared to the first presidential debate, which drove 88M views.
Of course many viewers came to YouTube to watch the debate live and we saw over 1.5M peak concurrent viewers, five times higher than the second presidential debate in 2012, and over 2.5M live watch hours, nearly six times higher than 2012.
Those viewers were highly engaged as well. On average, they watched the debate for nearly 25 minutes. And they came from all over the globe. After the U.S., top countries by viewership were: Canada, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain and Vietnam.
While much of the attention was on the debate, commentary continues to be a hot topic on YouTube. Sketches from some of the most popular late night shows were amongst the weekend’s most-viewed videos leading up to the debate. If you’re looking for a laugh after Sunday’s heated debate, check out Jimmy Fallon’s
Trump calls Madea
and Saturday Night Live’s
Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton Debate Cold Open
.
The final presidential debate is next Wednesday, Oct. 19, and we’ll bring you all the action live on YouTube from Las Vegas, Nev.
Brandon Feldman, YouTube News & Politics, recently watched the
second presidential debate
.
Tune into the second presidential debate, live on YouTube
Friday, October 7, 2016
As U.S. voters prepare to head to the polls in just over a month, all eyes are on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as they debate for a second time -- and like the last two debates, you can head to YouTube to watch the candidates take the stage.
Just choose a news channel on YouTube and join us live from St. Louis, Mo., on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET:
NBC News
CBS News
Fox News
PBS
Washington Post
Univision
Telemundo
Stay up to speed on U.S. election news, including live coverage, by heading to
youtube.com/news
. And if you haven’t already, register to vote. It only takes
1 min, 34 seconds
!
Brandon Feldman, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “
The Vice-Presidential Debate
.”
Watch tonight’s vice presidential debate, live on YouTube
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
After last week’s
record-breaking presidential debate
, Americans are gearing up to hear from the vice presidential nominees in the only debate where they’ll face off -- and you’ll be able to follow all the action live on YouTube!
Whether you’re watching from your smartphone or your smart TV, head to YouTube tonight at 9 p.m. ET and choose your favorite news channel, which will bring you live coverage from Farmville, Va.:
NBC News
Fox News
PBS
Washington Post
Univision
Telemundo
As always, check out
youtube.com/news
to follow all of the live coverage. See you tonight, and from the upcoming presidential debates in St. Louis, Mo., and Las Vegas, Nev.
Brandon Feldman, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched "
The First Presidential Debate
."
Google Home includes 6 months of YouTube Red, gives music lovers the best in-home music experience from YouTube
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
YouTube is where music lovers dig deep for music videos, live performances, and new songs that move them. YouTube Red makes music on YouTube even better, letting you play songs ad free, in the background, offline, and more.
Now with
YouTube Red
and
Google Home
, you can fill your home with more songs, more versions, and more dance parties. Google Home, a voice-activated speaker powered by the Google Assistant, is available for pre-order today. And it comes with a free 6-month YouTube Red membership, making it the best way to listen to music from YouTube at home.
Access a nearly endless catalog of music from YouTube just by using your voice. All you have to do is speak the name of a song, artist, or genre you want to hear and Google Home will play it. Want to get the party started? Just say “Ok Google, play a
song
by The Weeknd.” On top of that, playing any song starts a never-ending mix that taps into exactly what you’re in the mood for. Need something to listen to while you’re cooking dinner? Just say "Ok Google, play some chill music.”
In addition to being able to access all of YouTube’s music on Google Home, with YouTube Red you’ll be able to enjoy ad-free videos and more, almost anywhere you’re signed in to YouTube. You’ll also get access to all-new original movies and series from top creators made specifically for YouTube Red members.
Pre-order your Google Home with 6 free months of YouTube Red today. This offer’s only available for a limited time (for new members only), and we’d hate for you to miss out.
Sarah Ali, YouTube Living Room Group Product Lead, recently watched "
Alicia Keys - In Common
."
Matthew Leske, YouTube Red Group Product Lead, recently watched "
Kygo - Firestone ft. Conrad Sewell
."
With nearly 2 million concurrent viewers and over 3 million live watch hours, first presidential debate breaks political record
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Last night's debate marked the largest political live stream of all time and was one of the biggest live streams in YouTube history. This record-breaking political stream garnered nearly 2 million live concurrent viewers and 3 million live watch hours across the six news organizations that streamed the debate on YouTube.
To put these numbers into context, we took a look at 2012 debate viewership on YouTube. Compared to 2012, last night's debate had 14x larger live viewership, 5x higher watch time, and 4x more peak concurrent viewers. And views on all debate-related videos exceeded 88 million.
Of course YouTube is a global community and people in the U.S. weren’t the only ones watching. Here are the top five countries, in descending order, outside of the U.S. that tuned in live:
Canada
Mexico
Argentina
Australia
New Zealand
And remember, today is Voter Registration Day and
YouTube creators
along with
The Rock
,
Conan
,
Bill Maher
, and
The Chainsmokers
want you to
head to the polls and #voteIRL
.
Up next we’ll see you live from the vice presidential debate on Tuesday, October 4.
Kurt Wilms, Product Lead, Live Streaming at YouTube, recently watched "
Fastest Skateboarder Ever!
"
YouTube Go: YouTube reimagined for the next generation of YouTube viewers
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Earlier this year, I had the chance to travel to India to see how people there were enjoying YouTube up close. While in Nagpur, I met a young man who loved using YouTube to watch WWE wrestling and wanted to show us his favorite video. But after he found it and tapped to play, the video just wouldn’t load. Maybe it was his phone or his 2G connection, but it just wouldn’t work.
Unfortunately, this story isn’t an exception for our Indian viewers. They love YouTube and its amazing selection of Bollywood hits, comedy vlogs, cricket matches and—yes—even wrestling. But even as they discover the joys of YouTube, their experience is not great on slower connections and less powerful mobile phones.
We’ve always believed that connectivity should not be a barrier to watching YouTube. In 2014 we
launched YouTube Offline
so you could watch videos without suffering from buffering. A few months ago
we rolled out Smart Offline
, a feature that allows you to schedule videos to be saved offline later at off-peak times, when there’s more bandwidth so data is faster and cheaper. But we realized that for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer, we had to reimagine the YouTube mobile app from the ground up.
That’s why I and a team of engineers, designers, and researchers have been travelling to India, collecting ideas and testing prototypes with hundreds of people across 15 cities. They’ve helped us build a brand new YouTube app that’s faster, more relevant, and more affordable, with innovative new features.
Meet YouTube Go: a new YouTube app built from scratch to bring YouTube to the next generation of viewers. YouTube Go is designed with four concepts in mind. It’s
relatable
,
with video recommendations and a user interface that is made for you. The app is designed to be
offline first
and work even when there’s low or no connectivity. It’s also
cost-effective
, providing transparency and reducing data usage. And finally, it’s a
social
experience, connecting you with the people and content you care about.
The new preview function shows you what to expect before choosing to save or play the video, and in which resolution. You can also share videos to friends nearby, without using up any data.
Here are some of YouTube Go’s most notable features:
Find and discover relatable videos right on the home screen
: YouTube Go homescreen features trending and popular videos in your area, so that you’ll find and fall in love with new videos that you and your community care about.
Preview videos before you save or watch
: Not sure if you want to watch the video? On YouTube Go when you tap on a thumbnail, it’ll trigger a quick preview of the video, giving you a better sense of what the video is about before you decide to save or play it.
Choose your resolution when saving or streaming videos
: Whether you’d like to save a video for offline viewing later, or stream it now, you can see and choose the amount of data you’d like to spend on that video.
Share videos with friends nearby
: Share videos with friends and family nearby without using any data. You can send and receive videos instantly and offline with others using the YouTube Go app.
We’ll gradually roll out YouTube Go to more and more people over the next few months, getting their feedback and improving the product before launching it widely early next year. If you'd like to be among the first to find out when the app is ready, you can sign up at
youtubego.com/signup
.
We’re thrilled to bring YouTube Go to India …
ab Mazze udao, data nahin
!
Johanna Wright, Vice President of Product Management, YouTube, recently watched ”
How To Be a Ninja - EPIC HOW TO
.”
Watch tonight's presidential debate live stream on YouTube -- and don't forget to #voteIRL
Monday, September 26, 2016
With 42 days remaining, voters across the U.S. are gearing up for this year’s presidential election -- and tonight they’ll be able to watch the first presidential debate live on YouTube!
We
announced
last week that more news organizations than ever before are live streaming this major political event on YouTube. Have your choice and tune-in to your favorite news channel starting at 9:00 p.m. ET tonight. Here is where you can watch live on YouTube:
NBC News
Fox News
PBS
Washington Post
Univision
Telemundo
Can’t decide on one stream? Check out
youtube.com/news
to follow all of the live coverage.
You can also join
The Young Turks
and
Complex News
on the ground reporting from the debate using YouTube Live directly from their phones.
And don’t forget, tomorrow is National Voter Registration day and YouTube creators want you to
head to the polls and #voteIRL
. Tune in to
this playlist
to see how you can register to vote in the amount of time it takes
Ryan Seacrest to host a radio show
or
The Fung Bros to shoot hoops
. Surprising fact: it only takes one minute and 34 seconds!
Brandon Feldman, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched "
How to Vote in Every State
."
Growing our Trusted Flagger program into YouTube Heroes
Thursday, September 22, 2016
YouTube has always allowed people to
report content
they believe violates our Community Guidelines and we often hear questions about what happens to a video after you’ve flagged it. When a flag is received, the reported content is always reviewed by YouTube before being removed. We have internal teams from around the world who carefully evaluate reports 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and these teams remove content that violates our policies or are careful to leave content up if it hasn’t crossed the line.
Back in 2012, we noticed that certain people were particularly active in reporting Community Guidelines violations with an extraordinarily high rate of accuracy. From this insight, the
Trusted Flagger program
was born to provide more robust tools for people or organizations who are particularly interested in and effective at notifying us of content that violates our Community Guidelines.
As part of this program, Trusted Flaggers receive access to a tool that allows for reporting multiple videos at the same time. Once content is flagged, our trained teams review them to determine whether to remove the flagged videos or not. Our Trusted Flaggers’ results around flagging content that violates our Community Guidelines speak for themselves: their reports are accurate over 90% of the time. This is three times more accurate than the average flagger.
Given the success of the Trusted Flagger program, we want to do more to empower the people who contribute to YouTube in other ways. That’s why we’re introducing
YouTube Heroes
, a program designed to recognize and support the global community of people who consistently help make YouTube a better experience for everyone. These “Heroes” do this in big and small ways by
adding captions & subtitles to videos
,
reporting videos that violate our community guidelines
, or
sharing their knowledge with others in our help forums
.
The program is now available to a select group of contributors from across the globe who have histories of high quality community contributions. People who are interested in joining the program can express interest
here
and we will gradually admit other top contributors into the program.
YouTube Heroes will have access to a dedicated YouTube Heroes community site that is separate from the main YouTube site, where participants can learn from one another. Through the program, participants will be able to earn points and unlock rewards to help them reach the next level. For example, Level 2 Heroes get access to training through exclusive workshops and Hero hangouts, while Level 3 Heroes who have demonstrated their proficiency will be able to flag multiple videos at a time (something Trusted Flaggers can already do) and help moderate content strictly within the YouTube Heroes Community site.
A sneak peek at the new YouTube Heroes Community site
YouTube Heroes will also be able to track their own contributions and see their overall impact. They can easily find out when a video they reported has been removed by YouTube for violation of our policies, a subtitle they contributed has been approved by the creator, or a help forum answer they’ve posted has been marked as best answer.
A look at how YouTube Heroes can track their contributions
To kick the program off, we brought our first class of YouTube Heroes together for the first time this week at a two-day summit at YouTube HQ.
Meet our first class of YouTube Heroes!
It’s early days for the program and we will continue to roll out the details of YouTube Heroes and the dedicated YouTube Heroes Community site over the coming months. We’re excited to learn through this initial launch and to continue improving the program over time, as we’ve done with our Trusted Flagger program. We appreciate everything our community does to make YouTube vibrant and diverse, so on behalf of the team: thank you!
Jen Carter, Product Manager, YouTube Heroes, recently watched “
#voteIRL - Use Your Voice. Vote in Real Life
.
”
Celebrate Minecon on YouTube
Thursday, September 22, 2016
I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "Transformers." Now when I spend time with my nephew and niece, we watch Minecraft videos, the new version of Saturday morning cartoons. Minecraft can be both educational and entertaining to people of all ages — players create their own worlds whenever and wherever they want. Minecraft is a huge phenomenon on YouTube with rich content, an engaged community and
130M+ videos
.
Minecon, an annual event dedicated to all things Minecraft, is happening on September 24 and 25 in Anaheim, Calif. For Minecrafters who can't attend, we are bringing Minecon to you by launching a
Minecon 2016 event page
on YouTube Gaming. You’ll be able to keep up with videos from your favorite creators and the latest Minecon announcements as they are happening.
Minecraft gamers have been incorporating 360-degree video and VR into their content, and one of my favorite examples of this is the
“Wonder Quest” series
, which just released a new episode called "
Spot the Differences
.” Fans can expect more VR in upcoming episodes with a rollercoaster ride through highlights from season two, a 360-degree look into Stampy’s dreams, a scary Halloween-themed tale and much more.
We are also excited to announce support for 360-degree live streaming of Minecraft videos, which will come from the developer
CrushedPixel
. CrushedPixel first blew our minds with his
Replay Mod
, which allows you to record Minecraft videos in 360 degrees. His new upcoming mod will take it a step further with the capability to live stream Minecraft videos in 360 degrees! CrushedPixel will be joining YouTube creator and star
StacyPlays
on stage at Minecon for a special 360 panel to discuss both her Bookcraft series as well as his work with the 360 mods.
Together, we've built a new virtual world and a strong and open community on YouTube. We're excited to celebrate Minecon with you this year.
Posted by Ryan Wyatt, Global Head of Gaming Content, recently watched "
Wonder Quest 360 Video - Spot the Difference
" with my nephew.
Introducing YouTube Creators for Change
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Video affects us like no other medium. It can heighten our passions, stoke our fears, awaken us to new experiences and make our hearts ache. It can educate, build understanding and even change the way we see our world. In fact, over half of our millennial subscribers have said a YouTube creator has changed their life.
At a time when the internet is criticized for fueling division and distrust, we want to help demonstrate the incredible power YouTube has to generate a positive social impact. That’s why today, we’re introducing a new global program called YouTube Creators for Change, as well as new resources and grants dedicated to social change work.
YouTube Creators for Change is a new initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of role models who are tackling difficult social issues with their channels. From combating hate speech, to countering xenophobia and extremism, to simply making the case for greater tolerance and empathy toward others, these creators are helping generate positive social change with their global fan bases.
Our first six Creators for Change ambassadors are
Natalie Tran
(Australia),
Abdel en Vrai
(Belgium),
Nilam Farooq
(Germany),
Omar Hussein
(Saudi Arabia),
Barış Özcan
(Turkey), and
Humza Arshad
(United Kingdom).
We'll be introducing other ambassadors soon, and we will be sharing their stories — starting with Humza Arshad whose "
Diary of a Badman
" series is helping redefine what it means to be a young Muslim today in the U.K. Since video is such a powerful form of expression, watch and learn more about how Humza is using comedy to create change:
Over the next year, program ambassadors will drive greater awareness of social issues and foster productive dialogue around these topics through the videos they create. They’ll also help identify and empower emerging creators who also want to speak out on these crucial topics. To support and amplify ambassadors and emerging creators alike, we are committing $1M in equipment and production grants as part of the Creators for Change program. We’ll also welcome these creators at new programs at YouTube Spaces throughout the year, so stay tuned for more details soon.
Our efforts don’t stop here — we’ll also continue working with NGOs, schools, and media companies around the world to launch more local programs as part of Creators for Change. We recently
introduced
a program in France that brought together more than 700 participants who created 140 videos under the theme of
fraternité
. In Germany, YouTube creators joined forces under
#NichtEgal
, a movement dedicated to unite Germans in countering online hate.
We’re also pleased to announce that Google.org, our philanthropic arm, is establishing a $2M charitable fund to support nonprofits working on innovative solutions that promote inclusion and cross-cultural understanding.
We hope these new programs and resources will continue making YouTube a place where anyone can have a voice and where anyone can use the power of video to help generate positive social change.
Juniper Downs, Head of
YouTube
Public Policy, recently watched "
Web Rangers - ORT Sajur 2016
."
Change is Made with Code
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
What would the world look like if only 20 percent of women knew how to write? How many fewer great books would there be? How many important stories would go unreported? How many innovations would we lose? How many brilliant women would be unable to fulfill their potential?
That’s not just a theoretical question. Today, only a small minority of women know how to write code. That limits their ability to participate in a growing part of our global economy. It limits their ability to affect change as entire industries are transformed by technology. And it limits their potential to impact millions of lives through the power of code.
To change this trajectory, we need to do all we can to inspire women and girls that learning to code is critical to creating a brighter future for everyone. That’s why I’m excited to share that, today, Google’s Made with Code, together with YouTube, is teaming up with the
Global Citizen Festival
and millions of teen girls to ignite a movement for young women to change the world through the power of code.
Over the last five years, millions of Global Citizens have influenced world leaders and decision makers, and contributed to shaping our world for the better. As we’ve seen this movement grow, we’ve learned about some incredible women who saw problems in their communities and realized that the biggest impact they could have was through computer science. They’ve used an interest in computer science and tech to help the homeless, stop sexual assault, and bridge the gender gap in technology - check out their stories here:
These women are doing big things, blazing a path for the next generation of girls, but they can’t do it alone. The vast potential around using code to improve the world cannot be realized if there are only a few voices influencing how it’s shaped. That’s why, today, we’re inviting teen girls everywhere to join the movement. Our
new coding project
gives young women a chance to make their voice heard by coding a statement about the change they want to see in the world.
This week, hundreds of thousands of girls from around the country have already used code to share their vision for a better, more inclusive, more equitable world:
These coded designs will be displayed onstage at the Global Citizen Festival, as symbols of the many different voices from teen girls, standing up for the change they want to see in the world.
Together with musicians, sisters, YouTube sensations and newly minted coders,
Chloe x Halle
, teen girls are getting their start in code
Our efforts go well beyond this project. Made with Code is joining forces with Iridescent and UN Women to support the launch of the
Technovation Challenge 2017
which gives girls the opportunity to build their own apps that tackle the real-life issues they see around them.
Please tune into the
Global Citizen Festival livestream at youtube.com/globalcitizen
on September 24 to catch all the action. And, more importantly, join us and encourage the young women in your life to try out coding and contribute their ideas for how to make a better future.
Posted by Susan Wojcicki, CEO, YouTube
#voteIRL: Announcing YouTube’s get out the vote initiative and presidential debate live streams
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
At YouTube, we believe in giving everyone a voice. So this U.S. elections season, we’re committed to making sure that people--especially young people--use their voice by voting.
With November just around the corner, election-related content is exploding. Over 200,000 election videos have been uploaded to YouTube every day since the July Conventions and you’ve watched more than
110 million hours
of candidate and issues-related content on YouTube.
But while people are clearly engaged with the election online, we want to make sure they get involved “in real life,” too. Today, we’re announcing YouTube’s get out the vote campaign, #voteIRL, where together with the YouTube creator community, we’re helping get young people to the polls. Check out our new #voteIRL anthem video featuring some of YouTube’s top talent, including
Bethany Mota
,
Hannah Hart
,
Kingsley
,
Hank Green
and more.
Did you know it only takes 1:34 to register to vote?
1
With voter registration deadlines looming in October, it’s fast and easy to register to vote using
registration tools built by Google
. Starting today, look out for familiar faces making 1:34 videos where they do anything from
hosting their radio show
(hey Ryan Seacrest) to
doing their eyebrows
, while encouraging their fans to go register. We teamed up with AwesomenessTV, Fullscreen, Machinima, and Maker Studios, so watch for more 1:34 videos every day until National Voter Registration Day.
In addition to the link above, you can also find voter registration tools directly on YouTube. Watch out for registration reminders on the homepage, watch page, and search results page on September 27, Voter Registration Day.
Voting requires you to get educated with the latest and greatest from the candidates. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’re live streaming the presidential debates from more news organizations than ever before including
NBC News
,
PBS
,
Fox News
,
The Washington Post
,
Univision
, and
Telemundo
. You can also follow your favorite YouTube creators, including
The Young Turks
and
Complex News
, who will be on the ground reporting from the debates using YouTube Live directly from their phones.
Stay tuned to
youtube.com/youtube
and our social media channels as we release new videos, report from the presidential debates, and bring you closer to the election (and the polls) this November. And make sure you’re
registered to vote
!
Claire Stapleton, YouTube Elections team, recently watched "
Maymo the Dog Runs for President: Maymo 2016
."
1
We got a group at YouTube together and registered in every state and the average was just 1:34.
Why flagging matters
Thursday, September 15, 2016
YouTube allows people anywhere to share their stories with the world. They share their sense of humor, their talents, their opinions, what’s happening around them and within them. YouTube is also a community, and over the years, people have used the flagging feature located beneath every video and comment to help report content they believe violates our
Community Guidelines
.
We want to empower you, the YouTube community, to better understand how flagging works and how you can get involved in maintaining our community guidelines. To shed some light on how your flagging activity has helped keep YouTube a platform where openness and creative expression are balanced with responsibility, here are some of the latest data:
Over 90 million people have flagged videos on YouTube since 2006 - that’s more than the population of Egypt - and over a third of these people have flagged more than one video.
As YouTube grows, the community continues to be very active in flagging content: the number of flags per day is up over 25 percent year-on-year.
Community flagging on YouTube is international: People from 196 countries have flagged a video. The five countries with the most accurate flagging rates are: Indonesia, Turkey, Germany, Ukraine and France.
We’re also continuing to strengthen our policy enforcement processes: In 2015 alone, we removed 92 million videos for violation of our
policies
through a mix of user flagging and our spam-detection technology. While we are vigilant and fast in removing terrorist content and hate speech, it's worth noting that it actually represents a very small proportion of the content that violates our guidelines - those two violations account for only 1 percent of the videos removed in 2015.
When flagging, you can report which policy you think a video violates, from spam and sexual content to harassment and violent content. This helps us route and review flagged content more efficiently and effectively:
We have trained teams, fluent in multiple languages, who carefully evaluate your flags 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year in time zones around the world. They remove content that violates our terms, age-restrict content that may not be appropriate for all audiences, and are careful to leave content up if it hasn’t crossed the line. As YouTube grows, we continue to scale our policy enforcement resources to meet your needs as a community.
Flagged content, however, doesn’t automatically get removed. YouTube is an important global platform for information and news, and our teams evaluate videos before taking action in order to protect content that has an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic purpose.
We also take into account local laws in the countries where we operate and if we receive a
valid legal notice
that content violates a local law, we will restrict that content in the local country domain. You can find information about government removal requests in
Google’s Transparency Report
. Similarly, if we remove content for policy reasons after receiving a valid legal request, we will include that in our transparency reporting.
We want to encourage you to continue flagging and we hope this additional transparency will help you continue reporting responsibly. For more information about how these processes work, visit our
Policy and Safety Hub
.
Posted by Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy, who recently watched “
Leon Bridges' NPR Tiny Desk Concert
.”
#AskJuncker: YouTube creators to interview the European Commission President
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Cross-posted from
Google Europe Blog
This Wednesday, President Juncker will deliver his State of the Union address at the European Parliament. The next morning, the European Commission — along with partners
Debating Europe
and
Euronews
— will turn to YouTube to field questions about the issues that matter most to people across Europe.
YouTube Creators
Jonas Ems
,
Laetitia Birbes
, and
Łukasz Jakóbiak
will travel to Brussels from their homes in Germany, France and Poland to meet with President Juncker at the Commission’s headquarters at the Berlaymont. While Euronews has hosted live
Hangouts on Air
with European Commissioners in the past, this is the first time that YouTube Creators will have the opportunity to conduct a full interview with the President.
Nineteen-year-old Jonas is already a veteran YouTuber — not only has he built up a large following for his commentaries and comedy, he’s also
published a book
about his experiences. Laetitia focuses on sharing her values, like ecology and recycling, and
she recently participated
in YouTube’s
Toi-Même Tu Filmes
initiative, aimed at fighting hate speech. Łukasz, who conducts interviews from his tiny Warsaw apartment, explained in an inspirational
TedX talk
last year how he went from dreamer to doer (and how he got to meet Lady Gaga along the way).
It’s up to Laetitia, Jonas, and Łukasz to choose the questions: They’ll focus on the issues that are top of mind for them and their fans. If you want to weigh in, they’ll be looking at suggestions on social media with the hashtag #AskJuncker.
You can watch the whole thing on the
European Commission YouTube channel
— the live stream will begin at 11 am CET, and the recording will be available afterward.
Posted by Mark Jansen, Senior Communications Manager at Google Brussels
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