The online industry

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in 2005 by three former PayPal employees. The San Bruno-based service uses Adobe Flash technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging and short original videos. In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had reached a deal to acquire the company for $1. 65 billion in Google stock.

YouTube is available in 12 different languages. YouTube is so widely viewed that many candidates in the upcoming election are posting campaign videos on it. Members of YouTube that are among the most viewed are invited to be ” partners” and share in the revenue from advertising. In July 2006, reports revealed that more than 100 million videos were being watched every day, and 2. 5 billion videos were watched in the span of only one month. As of May 2006, 50, 000 videos were being added every day, and this increased to 65, 000 by July.

By 2008, 79 million users watched over 3 billion videos on YouTube in the month of January alone. In August 2006, The Wall Street Journal published an article revealing that YouTube was hosting about 6. 1 million videos (requiring about 45 terabytes of storage space), and had about 500, 000 user accounts. As of April 9, 2008, a YouTube search returns about 83. 4 million videos and 3. 75 million user channels (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/YouTube). While Youtube has been praised and enjoyed by millions of users, not everyone is thrilled with it.

Blocks on Youtube have been placed by countries such as Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran due to offensive material. Schools in many countries have also blocked Youtube from school computers due to violent and inappropriate material. Because the initial interviews will be mostly local, our initial market would probably be around the greater Baltimore area. However, since topics discussed on our site are global, our target market should grow nation wide. Our primary target audience age will be young adults between the ages of 16-25.

This would encompass the group of people known as generation Y. Generation Y is composed of anyone born between 1980 and 2000. Being more than three times the size of Generation X, businesses today need to pay special attention to this group. Below is some key points that businesses should take into consideration when trying to target this group. These characteristics of Generation Y will make our website extremely attractive to them. Because the group is so diverse, our site will capitalize on showing various topics, discussions, and opinions from an array of different people.

Every member of Generation Y will be represented on our site. Generation Y’s need for directness and action will also be addressed by our website. Interviewers, guests, and commentators on our site will be directly addressing issues that are affecting our lives. Ideas, suggestions, opinions, and solutions will encourage action by our viewers on issues that are affecting them personally. The fact that generation y is influenced by peers and is susceptible to liking what their peers do is a huge opportunity for our website.

Those who voice their thoughts and ideas on our site have the power to influence millions of their peers. This could also lead to investment opportunities by other firms. For example, if a new clothing brand wants to get their name out in the public, the can invest in our company. In return, we can create forums and discussions to introduce the new brand. The most important characteristic of generation Y is the fact the almost all of them have computers and most have internet access. Generation Y’s ability to access our site is key to its success.

Because Generation y is so savvy with computer technology, it will be easy for them to access our site, view videos, comment, and voice their own ideas. As the number and location of our viewers grows, we hope to expand our market to all ages over 16. We also hope to expand the location to a national and possibly global level. As our business grows and investments increase, we will be able to travel to different places to get opinions representative of a larger area. If our business is extremely successful, we could even higher correspondences who speak different languages to gain a global audience.