Field Guide Term:
YouTube

A video-sharing platform launched in 2005. YouTube allows its users to view, upload, share and comment on videos hosted on the platform. Content on YouTube includes film and television clips, vlogs, news stories, live-streamed videos, movie trailers, and educational videos. Users can also create playlists for their favorite videos to watch later.

Select video creators can earn revenue from videos by incorporating Google Adsense onto their “channels.” This gives the content creator a portion of the revenue from video ads run before, during, and after their videos.

In recent years, YouTube has incorporated film rentals, music streaming, and YouTube Premium, an ad-free platform that also hosts original content exclusive to Premium subscribers.