Here's a comprehensive summary of the Wikipedia article on YouTube:
YouTube, an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google, was launched on February 14, 2005, by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steve Chen. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, it rapidly grew to become the world's second-most-visited website, boasting over 2.7 billion monthly active users by January 2024 who collectively watch more than a billion hours of content daily. Google acquired YouTube for US$1.65 billion in November 2006, subsequently expanding its business model beyond advertising to include paid content like movies and the ad-free YouTube Premium subscription, which contributed to over $50 billion in combined revenue from Q4 2023 to Q3 2024.
The platform has evolved into a diverse hub for both user-generated and corporate content, ranging from vlogs and music videos to documentaries and live streams, profoundly influencing popular culture and creating numerous online celebrities. Despite its unprecedented social impact and massive global reach, YouTube faces ongoing criticism for issues such as the spread of misinformation, copyright infringement, privacy violations, and inconsistent content moderation.