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An illustration of the Earth orbiting YouTube

You think you know YouTube. It’s where billions of people learn how to change a tire, follow a favorite yoga workout or catch footage <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MJY_ptQW1o" target=_blank>of Monday’s solar eclipse</a>.

But maybe you don’t know that YouTube is also the most popular way to hear music and one of the country’s largest cable TV providers. YouTube is the healthiest economy on the internet. And it has been rocket fuel for artificial intelligence.

I’m digging into YouTube’s identity because it’s essential to understand the influence of technologies in our lives. As popular as YouTube is, its power over the internet and us is somehow <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-valuation-mrbeast-how-much-worth-2024-3" target=_blank>still underrated</a>.

Let me try to persuade you that YouTube is the most consequential technology in America:

YouTube is No. 1 in video and music listening

YouTube might be best known for wasting a few minutes at a supermarket checkout or on the toilet. (Sorry.)

YouTube, however, is also America’s top living room streaming destination. <a href="https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2024/super-sunday-delivers-a-record-day-of-tv-viewing/" target=_blank>Data</a> from Nielsen consistently shows that Americans spend more time watching YouTube on TV sets than we do any streaming service including Netflix.

There isn’t reliable data counting the combined time we stream on TV, phones, computers and other devices, but YouTube would likely be tops on that measure, too.

YouTube TV, which is like cable TV but accessed over the internet, is also now <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/why-youtube-decided-to-take-over-cable-television?rc=5vfpth" target=_blank>one of the leading cable TV providers</a> in the country.

In music, more people tune into <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-did-youtube-become-the-most-popular-music-streaming-site-by-sounding-like-the-world-itself/2019/07/30/f7428388-afdd-11e9-8e77-03b30bc29f64_story.html" target="_blank">songs on YouTube</a> than we do on Spotify, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/streaming-tops-radio-as-the-top-way-to-listen-to-music/" target="_blank">the radio</a> or any other audio service.

In a survey of people in several countries by <a href="https://www.midiaresearch.com/analyst/mark-mulligan" target=_blank>Mark Mulligan</a> of MIDiA Research, about two-thirds of respondents watched music videos on YouTube. About 43 percent listened to music online another way and 31 percent have a streaming music subscription like those from Spotify and Apple Music.

P.S. The most widely used social app among American adults is YouTube by a mile, Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/01/31/americans-social-media-use/" target=_blank>says</a>. The most widely used app among teens isn’t TikTok. It’s <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/12/11/teens-social-media-and-technology-2023/" target=_blank>YouTube again</a> by a mile.

It’s the healthiest economy on the internet

If you post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit or X, you are basically making those companies’ products for free. YouTube doesn’t work that way.

From each dollar that advertisers pay for commercials on many millions of YouTube videos, the person who made the video gets 55 cents. Google, which owns YouTube, keeps the rest.

A cartoon of Help Desk's Shira Ovide watching birds.

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Tech Friend writer Shira Ovide gives you advice and context to make technology work for you. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/the-tech-friend/?method=SURL&location=ART&initiative=CONTEXT" target=_blank>Sign up for the free Tech Friend newsletter</a>.

YouTube has had this financial arrangement for close to 20 years. Still today, no other large app has such a consistent way for people to earn income from what they create and post online.

YouTube’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/technology/youtube-online-creators.html" target=_blank>revolutionary payment system</a> matters to you even if you never earn a dime from making a YouTube video.

A healthy internet economy, like a well-functioning United States economy, is one in which everyone believes he has a shot to thrive. That includes you as the viewer, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/31/creator-economy-takeaways-influencers/" target=_blank>people making the information or entertainment</a> you’re watching and the companies distributing the material.

YouTube is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/technology/youtube-underwhelming.html" target=_blank>far from perfect</a> on this score, but it may be the closest thing to the financially ideal online economy.

By the way, if you buy a subscription to YouTube Premium, which lets you watch videos without ads, YouTube hands over portions of your money to the video makers, in proportion to your viewing time.

If you watch a lot of videos from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/03/mr-beast-money-hometown-greenville-creator-economy/" target=_blank>MrBeast</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/03/extremely-online-taylor-lorenz-influencers/" target=_blank>Not Just Bikes</a>, those YouTube channels will receive a large chunk of your subscription money. The relatively democratic system to pay the people making stuff is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-08/universal-music-soundcloud-weigh-pay-changes-to-reward-artists?sref=Qk91czAc" target=_blank>not how most music services like Spotify</a> or Netflix work.

Even if you only listen to jazz music on Spotify, Taylor Swift will still get a bunch of your subscription money.

YouTube is essential, controversial AI data fuel

You know an app is important when it becomes a wrestling match for companies grabbing every morsel of data <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2023/ai-chatbot-learning/" target=_blank>to “train” their AI</a>.

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/technology/tech-giants-harvest-data-artificial-intelligence.html" target=_blank>According to</a> the New York Times, ChatGPT owner OpenAI invented a way to suck up more than 1 million hours of YouTube videos and podcasts and turned the spoken words into fuel to coach its AI. Google has also transcribed YouTube videos to train its AI software, the Times reported.

What OpenAI did might violate YouTube’s terms of service and what Google did might violate the copyright of people who make YouTube videos, the Times reported.

OpenAI said it uses “numerous sources including publicly available data and partnerships for nonpublic data." Google reiterated the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-04/youtube-says-openai-training-sora-with-its-videos-would-break-the-rules?sref=Qk91czAc" target="_blank">YouTube CEO’s recent comment</a> that the company’s AI is trained with some YouTube material, “in accordance with our agreements with YouTube creators.”

YouTube is definitely flawed. It’s been used to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/23/technology-202-where-is-youtube-ceo-susan-wojcicki/" target=_blank>mislead</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/18/you-tube-mysogyny-women-hate/" target=_blank>harass</a> people and to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/11/russian-prosecutor-general-seeks-ban-instagram-declare-meta-an-extremist-organization/" target=_blank>spread propaganda</a>. But for good or for ill, YouTube matters even more than you probably think.

Haverford College

Columbia Journalism School

Shira Ovide writes The Washington Post's The Tech Friend, a newsletter about making your technology into a force for good. She has been a technology journalist for more than a decade and wrote a tech newsletter at the New York Times. 

Shira Ovide

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