It is hard to believe that five years ago, there was no YouTube.  No place to easily upload and embed movies into a webpage, nor a place to look to to find entertaining clips from everywhere in the world.  YouTube, now a fundamental part of the Internet, turns 5 today and Google has posted an interesting retrospective on the Internet service.  YouTube..

• Now gets two billion pageviews/day,  nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined.
• Now monetizes a billion videos/week, partner ad revenue tripled in 2009.  94 percent of AdAge’s top 100 advertisers advertised on YouTube.
• Sees more than 24 hours of video uploaded every minute (and growing)
• Supports HD and 3D, broadcasts entire sports seasons live to 200+ countries.
• Is the third most visited website overall
• Top videos, including “Evolution of Dance”, “Charlie Bit My Finger”, and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” are approaching 200 million views, each.  That’s equivalent to a view from 2/3rds of the US population.

Even though Google hasn’t yet announced that the service is turning a profit, the future is bright for YouTube.  Not only is it growing on the Web and on mobile devices (thanks in large part by Google’s decision to support H.264 viewing on the iPhone), but it also has a future on the TV.  Most major mediacenters support Youtube (Boxee, AppleTV, Windows MediaCenter, etc.) and Google, Sony and Intel have a big Android-on-TV announcement coming this week which will undoubtedly center around Youtube.

To celebrate their birthday, they’ve launched the YouTube Five Year channel.  Also, Conan O’Brien, Vint Cerf and Katie Couric have added playlists showcasing their favorite videos on the subjects they know best. You can add your Youtube five year story here.

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