YouTube App product analysis report!

This article is a product experience report of YouTube App. The author mainly analyzes the product status, product structure, interactive experience, product ideas and product content output strategy of the app, explores the current development of the knowledge payment field, and analyzes the successful experience of the "Get" product. (This article is about 15,000 words)

Table of contents:

01 Introduction
Background and Purpose
Experience Environment
02 Product Status
Product Introduction
Product Positioning
User Analysis
Market Analysis
Competitive product analysis
03 Product Structure
Functional architecture
Information Architecture
Basic Process
04 Interactive Experience
UI
icon
avatar
Animation
Brand Heritage
Permission Control
detail
05 Advertising Experience
06 Member Services
07 Recommendation System
08 Creator Support
09 Functional Vision
Challenges
Change Proposal
New features ideas
10. Localization Attempt
11 Conclusion

01 Introduction

1.1 Background and Purpose

Product development requires continuous improvement of functions based on demand, and the process needs to be advanced step by step. When designing an app, you also need to consider the characteristics of mobile devices and new ways of interaction. As the leading manufacturer of the Android system, Google is strengthening its ecosystem at both the hardware and software levels, and its video platform YouTube is the representative of the ecosystem.

This article will analyze the key points of functional design, explore the underlying considerations of design, and form an experience report through the author's long-term use of YouTube, mainly based on the App client and combined with the desktop. It aims to train one's own product thinking.

In addition, with the recommendation of Google's AI strategy and the arrival of Android 10 system, will there be major changes in YouTube in the future? This article will provide a record reference for subsequent iterations based on the existing version.

1.2 Experience Environment

Device used: Samsung Galaxy S10+
Operating system: Android 9, One UI 1.1 (412×869 dp)
App version number: v14.45.52
Network environment: WiFi + mobile data traffic

02 Product Status

2.1 Product Introduction

YouTube (commonly known as "Youtube" in Chinese) is an American video sharing website that allows users to upload, watch, share and comment on videos.

YouTube was founded in 2005 and acquired by Google in 2006. After years of development, it has become the world's largest and most popular video site. YouTube provides versions such as Web, App, TV, VR, etc. Using a Google account, content can be shared on multiple devices.

2.2 Product Positioning

YouTube is positioned as a platform that provides free video viewing, encouraging users to upload original high-quality content and spread and share their own fun with the world.

2.2.1 Product Type

In its early days, YouTube was a media product that provided people with a platform for disseminating information. With the addition of social functions, YouTube has gradually acquired the attributes of a community-based product. Despite the failure of its Google+ integration strategy, YouTube continues to strengthen user relationships and enhance its content driving force.

In addition, YouTube has established an advertising system for users and corporate customers, allowing multiple parties to establish product buying and selling relationships. In summary, YouTube has become a product with the attributes of "media + community + platform".

YouTube's features mainly include:

Free Video Upload (Video Hosting)
Free video playback
Video Comments and Sharing
Live Video
Music upload (audio hosting), playback, and sharing
social contact
Advertising
Advertising revenue

2.3 User Analysis

2.3.1 Target Users

YouTube's main users are individuals and businesses around the world who use video media to disseminate, obtain and share information, as well as individuals and businesses around music production and sharing.

2.3.2 Total number of users

In terms of total number, YouTube platform has more than 2 billion monthly active users (only registered and logged in users are counted). Among all user groups, creators and ordinary users are the two main roles on YouTube. Creators can create their own video channels, and ordinary users can follow the channels and get content updates after registering and logging in. Currently, there are about 50 million independent YouTube creators worldwide.

2.3.3 Audience Characteristics

In the United States, YouTube is the most popular app among young people. YouTube users aged 18-24 and 25-34 exceed any other app, higher than Facebook, which ranks second (the most popular app among users over 65 years old).

Additionally, more than 90% of Americans are YouTube users. In the UK, YouTube also dominates among young people. According to castfromclay data, the highest household income of YouTube users is over $100,000, with little difference between urban and rural areas.

Clearly, YouTube has become one of the most effective channels for reaching consumers from all walks of life in the United States.

In terms of gender, 62% of YouTube users are male, while female account for 38%. In terms of regional distribution, 80% of users come from non-US regions. In addition, 70% of YouTube's total network traffic comes from mobile devices, and viewing sessions last more than 40 minutes. Due to the large number of YouTube users and the advantages of Google services, about 62% of companies chose YouTube.

2.3.4 User needs

Main pain points and demand handling

2.3.5 Usage scenarios

Open YouTube has no usage threshold, making it easy for the public to use and has a variety of usage scenarios. for example:

A student was bored in class, so he used his computer to access YouTube after class and search for funny videos to watch.
Office worker A uses his mobile phone to watch the day's hot topics on YouTube and videos from subscribed channels on his way home from get off work.
A Tesla owner was watching YouTube videos on his car's in-car device while waiting for his girlfriend.
F, who is traveling in New Zealand, uses YouTube to watch American TV programs.
A freelancer created a UI design tutorial and posted it on YouTube for others to watch and learn.
Cindy, a girl with musical talent, uploaded her guitar singing video to YouTube and gained attention.
Anchor D makes money through live streaming. He started live streaming games at home using YouTube and interacting with viewers.
Technology reporter G was unable to attend Google's new product launch due to other matters, so he had to watch the launch live on YouTube.
Startup X has just launched a new product. Since it needs new users, it posts a video ad on YouTube. The ad service provides an App download link from the Google Store.

2.3.6 Summary

Young people choose YouTube as their first choice for social media, and they are the main users of the platform. YouTube is also popular among the elderly. Overall, the platform users are mainly male, but the differences are not significant. YouTube users around the world can use it easily and quickly without worrying about time and space constraints. YouTube is also suitable for individuals and companies, and different entities can choose corresponding functions to obtain different services.

2.4 Market Analysis

2.4.1 Financial Performance

YouTube generates approximately $13 billion in revenue for Google each year. According to Google's parent company Alphabet's second quarter 2019 financial report, YouTube has become the second largest revenue engine after search.

2.4.2 App Independent Downloads

The strong performance is inseparable from the platform users. YouTube users watch more than 1 billion hours of video every day, which is more than Netflix and Facebook combined. So how does YouTube's App client perform?

YouTube's Android app was downloaded by 61 million unique users on the Google Play Store, and was actually installed on 5 billion devices. Other versions also have a certain amount of downloads: YouTube Music 760,000, YouTube Kids 850,000, YouTube TV 70,000, and YouTube VR 3,000.

2.4.3 Evaluation and Scoring

YouTube received mostly positive reviews, with a score of 4.4 out of 5, which is almost the same as the scores of related applications such as Twitch listed above (4.4 or 4.5).

Reasons for favorable comments:

Lots of content, you can watch almost all content (news, games, music, movies, tutorials, Vlog, etc.)
Rich in functions (support VR and 360° video, privacy mode, dark mode, etc.)
Easy to use (Google account support, compatible with multiple systems and devices)
Provide financial support to creators

The reasons for negative reviews are mainly:

Too many ads
Functional defects (stopping for no reason, running slowly, causing the device to restart, many bugs, etc.)
The more you update, the harder it is to use
Interaction flaws (such as autoplay, watch later, etc.)

2.4.4 Version Update

In the early days, YouTube was a built-in program in the Android system. It was not until 2010 that YouTube released a mobile app based on HTML5, which can be used on Android and Apple phones. However, the Android client was not officially released until December 2011, and the iPhone client was released the following year, in September 2012. Until now, YouTube's more detailed history spans 8 years.

YouTube's versions are updated frequently, from the version dated 2019-09-08 to v10.24.58 to v14.43.55 released on 2019-11-23. In just two and a half months, the version has been updated as many as 30 times. In actual use, you will often see prompts to update YouTube when you open the App homepage.

Frequent app updates can bring new features, fix bugs and provide security updates, but too frequent updates also damage the user experience and increase operating costs.

Latest version update record:

2.5 Competitive Product Analysis

YouTube focuses on video services and has also encountered some competitors, mainly including Vimeo, Dailymotion, Vevo, Twitch, Instagram, Vine, Tiktok, etc.

2.5.1 Vimeo

Vimeo is an ad-free video site that is a direct competitor to YouTube. Vimeo was founded in 2004, earlier than YouTube. Vimeo was once at the forefront of video services, and it was the first video site to support high-resolution (720P). Vimeo began supporting 4K, 360°, and VR videos in 2014.

In the early days, Vimeo once banned gaming videos because the market for gaming videos was too long and the transcoding costs were high. However, the ban was lifted soon after. However, Vimeo failed to seize the business opportunities brought by games, and the game video streaming service market was taken away by Twitch and YouTube Gaming.

In terms of content, Vimeo focuses on quality rather than the variety and comprehensiveness of YouTube. Vimeo is still developing its software-as-a-service (SaaS) business and has made several acquisitions.

Has Vimeo replaced YouTube? The answer is no. It is actually a blessing that Vimeo has maintained good development due to the rise of YouTube.

2.5.2 Dailymotion

Dailymotion is a video website founded in 2005. It received investment from the French government in 2009 and

The valuation is 120 million euros. In May 2013, Yahoo attempted to acquire Dailymotion but was blocked by the French government. After 2015, 90% of Dailymotion was acquired by Vivendi.

In 2018, Dailymotion completely deleted comments from its website, and subsequently cancelled functions such as video sorting and video forwarding, resulting in the loss of some users. Coupled with copyright pressure, Dailymotion has not been able to grow and develop.

2.5.3 Vevo

Vevo is a hosting and sharing platform focused on music videos. It was established in 2009 as a joint venture between Universal Music, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI. Initially, Vevo had its own hosting services and apps, and only worked with Google to deliver a small number of videos on YouTube. However, due to cost and security reasons, Vevo announced the discontinuation of the App in 2018 and switched to YouTube for distribution. Since then, the number one music website in the United States has given its traffic to Google.

2.5.4 Twitch

Twitch's predecessor, Justin.tv, was founded in 2007. In June 2011, the gaming content was separated from it and named TwitchTV. Due to Twitch's outstanding performance, the parent company was renamed Twitch Interactive in February 2014. Three months later, Google offered to acquire Twitch for $1 billion, but in August, Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $970 million and became a wholly-owned subsidiary. The well-known game developer Take-Two also owns a 2% stake in this acquisition, which shows that Twitch has gaming genes.

Later, through a series of acquisitions and operations, Twitch became a game video live streaming and e-sports platform service provider.

In July 2011, Twitch launched its Partner Program, and by August 2015, the program had grown to over 11,000 members. The Partner Program allows creators to share in advertising revenue. In addition, Twitch users can subscribe to creators' channels for $4.99 per month to get exclusive services. Due to this advertising sharing system and its cooperation with Amazon e-commerce, Twitch quickly became the main choice for anchors.

2.5.5 Instagram

Instagram was launched in 2010 and was originally a photo hosting and sharing platform. In 2014, Facebook acquired Instagram for US$1 billion.

Instagram was then redesigned and became a member of the Facebook ecosystem, and developed into a social platform based on photos, videos, and live broadcasts. Subsequently, restrictions such as API were implemented to prevent third-party software and web applications from accessing Instagram post content.

Although Instagram does not use video as its main service, short videos and live broadcasts have attracted a large number of users in the closed environment of the platform. In addition, Facebook's social strategy has also brought challenges to YouTube.

2.5.6 Vine

Vine is the originator of short videos and was founded in June 2012. Vine allows users to upload short videos of 6 seconds for sharing. In 2012 Twitter acquired Vine. As of December 2015, Vine had 200 million active users. But the good times didn't last long. About a year later, Twitter announced that Vine could no longer upload videos, and then asked users to download archived videos as soon as possible. Soon after, Vine officially ended.

Vine was primarily limited by its own 6-second video length, and although it later adjusted the length, it was too late. In addition, imitation by competitors also becomes a direct challenge. Snapchat added 10-second video sharing in December 2012, and Instagram added a 15-second video sharing option in June 2013, and later expanded it to 60 seconds and even 10 minutes.

When Vine's product life cycle ends, it is also the time for similar products to seize the short video market. Including Instagram and Musical.ly/TikTok.

2.5.7 Tiktok

Tiktok, also known as Douyin, is a product launched by ByteDance in 2017. In 2017, ByteDance acquired musical.ly and merged it with TikTok in August 2018, forming a social media platform focusing on short videos.

Once launched, Tiktok gained absolute market share thanks to its strong marketing promotion. Throughout the first half of 2018, TikTok was downloaded more than 104 million times from the Apple App Store, surpassing Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to become the most downloaded iOS app in the world. As of February 2019, TikTok has been downloaded 1 billion times worldwide, excluding Android users in mainland China.

2.5.8 Netflix

Netflix was founded in 1997 and initially focused on home video sales and DVD rentals before launching subscription services. IPO listed in 2002. In 2010, Netflix began to vigorously expand its streaming business. As of January 2016, Netflix announced that it had 74.8 million subscribers. On March 2, 2018, Netflix's stock price soared and its market value exceeded $130 billion, making it the world's largest digital media and entertainment company at the time.

There is a certain competition between YouTube and Netflix in paid content. YouTube has introduced a paid model, and users can watch paid content after obtaining premium membership rights, including YouTube's official self-made and third-party paid content. In addition to strengthening its subscription model and collaborating with entertainment companies, Netflix has also begun producing its own content. In order to consolidate its own advantages, Netflix's paid content can only be watched on Netflix, and paid resources are not put on YouTube.

summary:

By comparing the main business areas and development history, it can be seen that YouTube started early, but its early direct competitors have lost their advantages, and now YouTube occupies an absolute market position. Due to the need to expand the market, "conflicts" arose with business areas such as Amazon and Facebook, and competition began.

2.5.9 App Comparative Analysis

Through the data statistics of various apps in the Google Store, a comparative analysis is conducted.

1) Number of unique users: YouTube App has 61 million unique users, far exceeding early competitors such as Vimeo and Dailymotion, with the largest number exceeding 580 times (Vimeo). But the total number lags behind Instagram by about 3 million. As for the existing direct competitor Twitch, YouTube is about 21 times larger than it, which gives it a significant advantage in terms of data.

2) App installations: YouTube has 5 billion device installations, ranking first, far ahead of other apps, 5 times that of the second-ranked Instagram, and 500 times that of Vimeo. However, it should be pointed out that the number here only refers to the number of installations, not the actual number of installing users. Uninstallation, reinstallation, updates, etc. are also included.

3) Platform valuation/market capitalization: The top four are YouTube (US$160 billion), Netflix (US$138 billion), Instagram (US$100 billion), and Tiktok (US$75 billion), while the other five platforms are valued at less than US$500 million. From the perspective of distribution, the valuation/market value of video platforms varies greatly, showing a two-tier differentiation phenomenon.

It should be noted that the statistics for Netflix here are market value data after listing, while the others are valuation data. YouTube currently has the highest valuation, which has been rising in recent years.

summary:

YouTube is an early-developed video platform, and in its subsequent development it has achieved a high market share, a large user base, and ranks among the top in market value. As competition intensifies, on the basis of long videos, it has gradually started to develop short videos, live broadcasts, content production and other businesses to compete with other platforms. This competition has shifted from early video hosting sites to streaming and social networking, with Instagram, Twitch, Tiktok, Netflix, etc. becoming the main competitors now and in the future.

03 Product Structure

3.1 Functional Architecture

Compared with the PC Web version, YouTube's App inherits most of the core functional modules, mainly including: search module, video playback module, comment system, personalized recommendation system, content upload and publishing system, notification module, user information system, membership service module, advertising system, security system, etc. However, the App lacks functions such as the creator center.

Functional architecture diagram:

3.2 Information Architecture

App information structure diagram:

3.3 Basic Process

Basic flow chart:

04 Interactive Experience

4.1 UI

4.1.1 Page Switching

The method for switching between pages in the YouTube App is to click to switch, and left and right swiping is not supported.

4.1.2 Navigation Design

The main interface navigation of YouTube App uses a fixed tab menu at the bottom, with a total of 5 tabs: Home, Trending, Subscriptions, Inbox, and Media Library.

With the popularity of large and full-screen mobile devices, especially mobile phones, the screen can display more content without having to constantly break through the screen space limitations. YouTube is no longer designed completely according to the original Google MD specifications. The most obvious change is that the navigation has abandoned the side-sliding menu and replaced it with a bottom tab.

The benefits of doing this are:

Reduce the number of operation steps for users. The menu options are clearly visible on the main interface, and users can directly access the content section with one click.
Make iOS and Android design styles closer to "unified", reducing design and development costs;
It is consistent with mainstream apps with large user base (such as WeChat and Facebook, which all use bottom tab navigation), reduces cognitive costs, and uses common operating logic to make users feel familiar.
Bottom navigation is more conducive to one-handed operation, while the side-sliding menu is usually located in the upper left corner of the screen, which is not conducive to one-handed operation.

However, the bottom navigation also has disadvantages: it is not friendly enough to horizontal screens; in the case of a large number of function menus, the number of bottom tabs is limited (usually no more than 5). At this time, you can adopt the combination of "side sliding + bottom navigation", which is also adopted by Bilibili App, which is also a video platform.

YouTube's account and settings center uses a list-style menu with various functions arranged in sequence.

Existing problem: Click the bottom navigation to enter [Inbox], and find that there are very few notification messages in it. Why is it set as the first-level menu? Considering that some users (especially creators) will receive a large number of content update reminders and comment replies, a dedicated inbox is necessary.

In actual personal use, since the number of messages is almost in the single digits, [Inbox] as one of the five bottom navigations is often unconsciously clicked and opened, but no actual information is obtained, which makes people doubt the necessity of its existence in the navigation.

History of major changes in navigation design:

The YouTube client released in 2010 adopted a bottom pop-up navigation, and the versions in the following two years basically continued this design.

In 2013, YouTube UI was significantly revised. YouTube 5.0 brought a side-sliding navigation menu. Users only need to swipe right on the left edge of the screen to call out the menu, or click the "three horizontal" icon in the upper left corner to expand/close the navigation menu.

This version also brings a new card design (layout will be discussed below). In 2014, YouTube 6.0 brought Material Design and added "Home" and "Music" tabs at the top.

Figure: YouTube 5.0 in 2013 brought a side-slide menu

In June 2015, Google redesigned YouTube, and the top navigation contains three options: Home, Subscriptions, and My (Account). Later, "Popular Content" was added to the top.

Google redesigned YouTube in June 2015

One year later, in 2016, YouTube moved the navigation from the top to the bottom, and there were 5 tabs at the bottom: Home, Popular Content, Subscriptions, Share, and Account. In 2017, the bottom tabs changed to 4: Home, Popular Content, Subscription Content, and Media Library (in addition, an avatar icon was added to the top, which will be discussed below). In 2018, “Inbox” was added, and this 5-bottom navigation tab design has continued to this day.

Figure: 4 top navigations in 2015 gradually transformed into 5 bottom navigations in 2016

4.1.3 Content Layout

1) Video content layout

Currently, YouTube video content uses a "list-style" (which can also be seen as a "full-bar card + blank space") layout to accommodate video content: cover (230px high); creator avatar, video title, channel name, number of views, upload time (total height 54px).

In one screen, when there is an advertisement on the homepage, only two cards, i.e. two videos, can be displayed. When ads are ignored, up to 3 videos can be displayed on one screen. Also note that the third video cover is only half displayed, telling the user that they can continue to scroll down.

In contrast, the early YouTube 2.0 version adopted a "list-style" layout, which could display 6 videos on one screen, and it was on a small screen. From a general perspective, as the screen gets bigger, more video content should be displayed. But now the opposite is true, the number of items displayed on the next screen of the big screen is reduced by half. The content layout has changed from the previous left picture and right text to the current picture above and text below. Moreover, pictures not only occupy a relatively large area, but also rank first among the elements.

It can be seen that the purpose of adopting this method is to highlight the role of the picture and attract the user's vision. For creators, cover production becomes extremely important.

Of course, the layout of the video content on the homepage is not static. Sometimes, you’ll see a card-like video that you can slide left and right (this method is also used for advertising content, which will be discussed below). Such card layout content is generally thematic, such as key news, etc. They are not subscribed by users but come from system recommendations, and the number is higher than 3. Their weight is not high compared with other videos on the homepage.

When you enter the playback interface of each video, the related videos below the player are in list format, with the picture on the left and the title on the right, just like early YouTube.

Why don’t you use grid/double-column cards for the homepage and subscription content video layout?

The list format has poor space utilization, and the grid format solves this problem well. Why doesn't YouTube use a "double-column card" approach to present two videos in a limited space, which would also be consistent with the desktop version (multiple in a row)?

In Taobao, double-column cards can display two groups of products side by side, which is conducive to comparison. But for YouTube videos, they are independent of each other and come from different creators. There is no comparison between videos. What users need is to browse quickly and filter out the content they want to watch.

In addition, there is actually a clear design logic path hidden behind the layout. "About Face 3: The Essence of Interaction Design" lists "creating logical paths" as one of the important principles of interactive interface design. "The layout needs to adopt a correct and efficient logical path, and users can interact with the interface along this logical path." Below is the main path comparison between YouTube and Bilibili:

Although the path for users to click to play a video is not complicated, for people, the usual reading situation is from left to right and from top to bottom. YouTube’s layout allows the user’s eyes to follow a logical path from top to bottom as they move across the interface, which helps users reach their goals simply and efficiently.

Bilibili has a Z-shaped logical path. The user's vision will read the video cover and title "from top to bottom" in the first video, and then enter the second video side by side "from left to right". After that, the vision needs to jump from the upper right corner of the interface to the lower left corner, repeating the steps of reading the video cover and title "from top to bottom".

When there are multiple videos arranged at the same time, such a path almost fills the entire screen, which can easily cause visual and psychological fatigue.

>>Content Control
Which is more important, the cover or the title? A good cover can quickly attract users to click. At this time, the importance of the title is lower than the cover, but the title contains popular information and keywords, which is more conducive to watching the video through search.
In order to get clicks, you need to be a "cover party" + a "title party". However, from the perspective of the platform, this undoubtedly creates opportunities for real clickbait headlines.
In order to deal with the situation where the creator's picture or title deviates too much from the video content itself, YouTube's like/dislike and comment system comes into play. Users can give a negative rating or comment on a video, and other users can learn about the negative rating information. At the same time, when using the reporting system, the video also faces the risk of being set to private and deleted.

4.1.4 Advertising Layout

Ads are presented differently in different locations. The top ad space on the homepage is usually a full-width card (with blank space at the bottom), with a quantity of 1. In terms of order, this ad takes precedence over the video below and has the most prominent position.

Ads inserted between video content use a card design when there are a large number of ads, which can be slid left and right. The advantage of doing this is that it is convenient to add new content, and the cards are independent of each other without destroying the advertising content in other cards. At the same time, small cards take up little space, and sliding left and right allows more ads to be displayed without screen limitations.

4.1.5 Short film story layout

Short stories are not an original feature of YouTube, but it was copied from apps like Snapchat and Instagram, which added the short video feature. Its layout uses small cards that can be slid left and right.

4.1.6 Post Layout

Users can publish posts, which consist of titles, content (which may include links), pictures, etc., and are arranged in an up-down manner. Subscribers will receive post updates. Currently, posts take up a lot of space, and when there are pictures, the post will take up more space than a video.

In terms of weight, posts and videos are comparable.

Why design the post like this? Let’s assume that anchor A is planning to start broadcasting on Twitch. He has 1 million subscribers on YouTube and is ready to notify them. However, YouTube can only upload and publish videos. If you just want to issue a simple notification, you need to record a video of more than ten seconds and upload it. Only after it is reviewed and passed can subscribed users receive the notification. This pure notification video will often be deleted afterwards, which causes unnecessary time costs and is not conducive to the creator's control over the video content.

A post is a message just like a tweet, and the creator does not need to spend time posting and recording videos, they just need to edit the text and pictures and publish them. This not only establishes a more effective way of disseminating information, but also enhances the social attributes of YouTube.

The layout weights of the four types of content can be simply summarized as: advertising ≥ video > post > short story .

4.1.7 Network anomalies

When watching videos (ads), it is inevitable to encounter network problems. YouTube handles network anomalies as follows.

When loading content on the home page: use the "pattern + prompt text + operation" method. The cartoon pattern (an astronaut standing upside down and coffee spilled) can clearly and intuitively inform users that they have encountered an unexpected situation, and use text to prompt the specific reasons "Connect to the Internet" and "You are not connected to the Internet, please check the network connection." It also provides a feasible solution, that is, the blue font "Retry" for users to click and try to connect to the server again.

When searching: Tells you to check your network connection and provides a "Retry" button.

In actual use, if only the text of network error or loading error is displayed, it will make users feel helpless. This is when a feasible solution should be provided. Although the MD specification states that it is not recommended to only provide "Retry", in order to allow users to recover, it will be helpful to clearly inform the "Check Network Connection" and "Retry" buttons.

At the same time, this prompt can add "patterns" or "icons" according to the page, so that users can know what is happening without reading the text. The options available are: exclamation mark, network disconnection icon, unhappy expression, etc.

If the network connection is restored after a disconnection, YouTube will pop up a prompt text with a green background from bottom to top at the bottom saying "Network connected", which will disappear after about 1 second. One of the ten principles of human-computer interaction expert Jakob Nielsen is called "Visibility of system status," the gist of which is that the system should always let users know what is happening through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time.

One application is to let users know what the system is doing and provide users with as much information as possible about the system's operating status while the system is running. YouTube provides timely feedback on state changes during network anomalies and network recovery, which can be clearly understood and can reduce user anxiety when errors occur, or inform users that they can continue to use the service when the errors are fixed.

4.1.8 Dark Mode

YouTube offers a light theme (default), and a dark theme "Dark Mode" can be turned on at night time or when needed, which is the same as the PC web version.

Dark Mode is designed for accessibility, enabling anyone (regardless of ability) to browse, understand, and use the YouTube app. Among them: icons and text follow the color contrast recommendations of the MD specification, and there is a clear contrast between them and the background color. The black background is not pure black, otherwise it will cause too high contrast.

However, when you switch themes, the homepage content will automatically refresh and reload.

4.1.9 Explanatory text/prompt text

Taking [Settings]-[General] as an example, each function has an explanation or prompt text. If you switch to the "Dark Theme Background", the fixed description text below is "Reduce glare and improve night viewing experience"; "Upload" also has the description text "Network preferences for video uploads".

Their benefits are:

Provide functional description
Provides options for operation
Inform the consequences of the operation

In this way, users can know the current status, the consequences of the operation, and obtain information feedback before clicking to select or turning on the switch.

4.2 Icons

The function icon adopts the "face icon" and adopts the "line and surface combination" design method. The icons are matched with text, which is consistent with the desktop version.

The icon is a monochrome icon with a default color of gray. When the navigation icon on the main interface is clicked, the color changes to red (brand color). All colors are pure colors with 100% transparency. When dark mode is on, the icon defaults to light gray and turns white (not 100% transparency) when clicked. When clicked, there are no element changes or animations within the icon itself.

concise
unified
High recognition
Do not interfere with the main content (video)

4.2.1 Analysis

Since the YouTube App does not integrate a large number of its own or third-party services like WeChat, nor does it need to provide a large number of functional options like Google Play, the overall number of in-app functional icons of the YouTube App is small. .

In addition, based on the principle of consistency, the icon adopts a simple design without multiple colors. This makes the icon more coordinated with the large number of colorful video covers and allows users to focus on the video content.

4.3 Avatar

Regarding the top menu bar, YouTube continues its usual design: Logo + video icon + search icon. Later YouTube added the profile picture in the top right corner.

4.3.1 Analysis

The avatar should be round, not rectangular or other polygonal, which is more conducive to highlighting the main body of the face and removing unnecessary elements. Round avatars are also more versatile.

The avatar is a function entrance that brings together the account + settings center. The basic process is: click the avatar - open the [Account] panel - modify information + settings. In addition, clicking on the avatar on different pages has different effects: clicking on the avatar on the main interface will enter the [Account] panel, and clicking on the avatar in the account panel will enter the personal channel.

Inform status: The avatar on the main interface can clearly inform the user of the current status: I am logged in, and this avatar is me, not someone else. The existence of the avatar means that you can perform almost all operations without having to log in to your account again or create a new account. Especially when there are multiple accounts, the avatar can specifically indicate the current login account to prevent operational errors.

Assuming that there is no avatar on the main interface, you can also put the corresponding function into the settings, and it will not affect the presentation of the video content. However, as mentioned above, YouTube is a content-driven platform. The content comes from users. Users need an identity system, and the system needs to emphasize user identity. Avatars are the most intuitive and effective way.

In addition, YouTube also has social attributes. Users can comment, like, and reply, interacting with other users in a public environment. Therefore, the avatar also plays the role of conveying the user's personality. For creators, avatars also have brand communication value. The avatar is the most direct representative element of the channel they create. Creators can use personal photos or logos as avatars. Users can quickly confirm the author of the video as soon as they see the avatar.

4.3.2 Questions

Why is there an avatar in the upper left corner of the QQ main interface, but not in WeChat? WeChat places the avatar in the [Me] settings. Users cannot see the avatar and need to click to view the avatar information. This method is adopted by many apps.

The current thinking is that the main reason for whether to place the avatar on the main interface lies in the account system.

There is no need to emphasize the user identity of a single account: For example, although WeChat supports account switching, users use one account most of the time, that is, one WeChat App client is held by one account, and the system does not need to specifically indicate the user identity.
Multiple accounts need to emphasize user identity: QQ, Gmail, and YouTube are typical apps that support multiple accounts login and switching, and it is convenient to switch accounts. In the multi-account usage environment, the user's avatar can display the account's ownership well.

4.4 Dynamic Effect

Apart from sliding refresh, there are not many internal animation effects used in the app. The live broadcast page, live chat, etc. are in a simple style, and the rich animation effects are different from live broadcast platforms such as Instagram.

A brief analysis of the reason: As a content-driven video platform, YouTube is the core, and the storage, playback, sharing, and comments of videos are the core needs of attention. It has a huge user base and maintains a simple style design to meet the needs of users in different cultures and regions as much as possible.

Youtube Picture-in-Picture Play

Even so, YouTube's animation design has its own unique features. Taking the picture-in-picture function as an example, compared with Bilibili and Huya Live, YouTube's animation is smoother and more natural, and the design of the small window is more conducive to the operation of other applications.

4.5 Brand inheritance

Red has been passed down as a brand color for YouTube. Even after many iterations, the subsequent apps have adopted red as a general theme color. At the same time, from the early stages to the current version, logo, video function icons, search icons, etc. have been relatively consistently inherited. Maintain visual consistency.

4.6 Permission Control

When using certain applications on a daily basis, you will encounter problems such as slow running and lag, especially some well-known domestic apps or Facebook applications, but you have not encountered these situations when using YouTube (at least in recent years).

The permissions required for YouTube App include: location information, storage, phone, camera, address book, and microphone.

There are few permissions, only the necessary permissions are included;
Users are not mandatory to grant permissions.

Even if all permissions such as the app are disabled, YouTube can be used normally (but recording/uploading videos still requires the storage permission). Some apps not only force phone permissions to crash (unable to use), but also store a large amount of data outside the APK package name after obtaining storage permissions, occupying too much storage space on the mobile phone and slowing down the running speed.

Why does YouTube adopt the principle of less permissions and no mandatory? It can completely ask for permissions like Facebook. In theory, Google mainly relies on advertising business to make profits. It needs to obtain user data more than companies like Apple that rely mainly on hardware to make profits, and the more the better. But YouTube's permissions are extremely restrained.

In my opinion, the main reason is:

Google is most familiar with the underlying layer of the Android system and needs to build its own applications into an example of Android.
Youtube is not a financial app, which can reduce the request and verification of users' phone number (mobile number/sMS) permissions.
When registering a Google account, you have actually obtained information such as the user's mobile phone number (the early Google accounts did not require a mobile phone number, but you need to verify the mobile phone number after registration soon). Google's service can be one-stop, and Google's own app does not require multiple calls.
Google has powerful algorithms that can provide excellent advertising recommendations. Unlike some platform applications, they push advertisements after obtaining user permissions and data, or form advertising alliances to cast net advertising. Google's advertising system serves itself, and the advertising delivery is more reasonable.

Benefits: Good permission control makes YouTube run smoothly, which not only gives you a good user experience, but also increases the favorability of the product.

4.7 Details

Here is a brief introduction to YouTube's feature experience:

4.7.1 Voice Search

YouTube provides voice input options in the search box, which, like Google Search, is another complementary solution to text input search. Although the author almost does not use voice search, it has an irreplaceable effect: voice search enriches interaction methods; helps disabled people use products without barriers; potentially provides algorithm support for Google Voice Assistant, enhances Google's human-computer interaction development, and has huge prospects for use.

4.7.2 Picture-in-picture playback

Turn on Picture in Picture to allow users to browse, search in the app while watching videos, or open and use other apps. This can be equivalent to implementing multi-window tasks.

4.7.3 Easily feedback

If you give "feedback" to the short film story, the system will automatically fill in the sender (i.e., email) in the form and automatically complete the screenshot. It is selected by default. Click to mark the screenshot with a brush to highlight the problem. Users only need to fill in the feedback text and click send to complete it.

4.7.4 Not interested / This channel is not recommended

For videos recommended on the home page, users can directly click on the "Three Dots" menu icon on the right side of the title and select "Not Interested" or "Don't Recommend this Channel". Even so, if there are a lot of unliked videos, you need to click them one by one.

4.7.5 Quick unsubscribe

If you see a video of the subscribed channel, users can directly click on the "Three Dots" menu icon on the right side of the title and select "Unsubscribe" to unsubscribe this channel without entering the subscription management to find this channel.

4.7.6 Useful small dots

[Subscribe content] At the top of the page is the avatar of the channel you subscribed to in a column, each avatar has a small blue dot in the lower right corner, proving that the channel has content updates. Click All to view all the channels list. Whether there are small blue dots on the right can quickly identify which channels are updated and which channels are diving. Moreover, channels that are frequently viewed will be ranked higher by default.

4.7.7 Blocking

Users can not only unsubscribe to a certain channel, but also block it, so that the content of this channel will not be visible to the homepage. Unfortunately, certain advertisers cannot be blocked at present.

4.7.8 TV projection/VR viewing

YouTube supports "watch on TV" so that the TV can sync videos on your phone, provided that they are on the same Wlan network and are already connected. In addition, YouTube supports selecting VR mode to watch in the playback interface menu, provided that VR devices are required.

It can be seen that TV/VR support is a multi-terminal shared content ecosystem in order to broaden the platform boundaries. As Google vigorously enters smart homes and the Internet of Things, the pace of multi-device interconnection has accelerated.

05 Advertising experience

With YouTube, you will inevitably encounter ads, and ads are almost everywhere and everywhere. Fortunately, Google provides a skip option, that is, when you start watching ads for 5 seconds, users can choose to "skip" the ad, and the ad disappears.

5.1 Advertising Classification

Divide by whether to skip:

Skip: Most advertisements on YouTube can be skipped in 5 seconds, which not only ensures that users are not interfered with by the advertisements, but also encourages advertisers to serve high-quality advertisements through backend feedback data.
Not skipable: Sometimes you will encounter ads without skip buttons. These ads will be played forcibly, usually for 5 seconds, 15 seconds, located before the video starts or during video playback. In actual use, very few advertisements that cannot be skipped are encountered.

Divided by time:

5 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes: Most common.
30 minutes, 1 small or more: rare (for example, if a channel uses its own videos for advertising).

By source:

Official Google ads.
Advertisements posted by manufacturers.
Ads posted by creators: Multiple ads can be inserted into the video for more than ten minutes. You can also display a complete video as an ad on the homepage.

Divided by location:

Main interface advertisements: a large number, interspersed with videos.
Video playback ads: a large number, mainly located before, in the middle, and after playback.
Video details page advertisements: most of them are website and application advertisements.

By media type:

Video format: the largest number, the best viewing and dissemination effect.
Image format: link externally to the advertiser's website.
Hyperlink: Used when promoting the app, users click the icon (introduction) to jump to the Google Store to download the app.

It is worth noting that YouTube has no startup ads, which ensures user experience.

Despite the high number of ads on YouTube, the user experience has not been destroyed by forced long ads thanks to the rule that allows the vast majority of ads to skip in 5 seconds. This may be Google's compromise method, which not only ensures advertising delivery, but also brings advertising effects to advertisers.

However, from Google's financial report, it can be seen that advertising revenue accounts for more than 80% of its revenue, which proves that advertising revenue is high, and it also makes it impossible for Google to refuse advertising business, which has also made more and more advertisements on YouTube in recent years.

5.2 Some bad experiences encountered by users

There are many advertisements displayed on the homepage, which occupy a large space and cannot be hidden, which to a certain extent affects the experience of filtering videos. When you continue to pull down and refresh, you will encounter advertisements. Although the displayed ads are explicitly "ad" tagged in the UI, if you are not careful, you may be misled to click.
When watching a video, you may encounter two consecutive advertisements before the official playback.
Ads will also be encountered after the video is played.
Can't decide which ads you can want to see. Although some ads can be selected to "no longer show", Google also said "try not to show". In fact, Google allows users to change their ad settings, but users are unable to interfere with the eventual ad content.

5.3 Conclusion

As the number of advertisements continues to increase, users only have the option of "skipping in 5 seconds". If you want to remove ads, you need to purchase premium membership services.

06 Member Services

YouTube Premium (formerly known as "YouTube Red") is a paid membership service provided by Google. It adopts a subscription system and can be cancelled at any time after activation. There are 3 member types: Individual membership $11.99/month; Family membership $17.99/month, which supports up to 5 family members; Student membership $6.99/month, which requires verification once a year.

6.1 Membership rights

Watching videos is not disturbed by advertising.
Watch original paid content from YouTube Originals.
Download the video (song) to the device to watch offline (but it must be verified online within a certain period of time).
Get the background playback function to continue playing music while operating other applications.
You can enjoy music on Google Home or Chromecast Audio.

In actual experience, after opening an individual membership, you will not encounter advertisements when watching the video. However, the ads displayed on the homepage will still exist, and the membership service will not eliminate all types of ads.

YouTube individual members are about 84 yuan per month, which is "too high" in price compared to the price of 25 yuan per month for domestic Bilibili members. In terms of membership rights, the most valuable function is to go to advertising and offline downloads, while the value of music-related rights is not high, because YouTube cannot establish the same advantages as Spotify as simply a music app.

Although the rights and interests seem unsatisfactory, compared with other platforms, YouTube does not rely on membership permissions to limit the user's experience. Instead, he is very conscientious. For example, users can watch 4K (+60FPS) videos on YouTube, even if you don't have a membership. On Bilibili, non-member users can only watch videos with normal definition, and ultra-definition and 60FPS videos require membership.

Google does not use membership permissions to set the threshold, and all users can get the same experience when watching videos. This is largely because Google has powerful cloud services and streaming technology, which reduces the cost of data storage and transmission.

However, Bilibili is different. It needs to face a large number of users who upload videos at 0 costs per day and constantly increase in storage costs. Ultra-clear and 60FPS videos will cause greater pressure and loss to the server. In the absence of leading technology, using membership rights to establish access thresholds for limited resources is a helpless move, and of course it is also a useful attempt in commercial expansion.

07 Recommended system

Through years of technical accumulation, Google has applied recommendation algorithms from Google search to YouTube. Not only video content, but also advertisements, or almost all content, can be recommended algorithmically and displayed to users.

The algorithm directly brings 70% of viewing, bringing a better experience to YouTube users. At the bottom, Google uses neural networks to analyze large amounts of data and user viewing records to achieve the best results.

7.1 The general process

Content classification (Item Representation): extracts features for classification.
Profile Learning: Learn user's preferences based on user operation history.
Recommendation Generation: Generate recommended content through content classification and portrait learning.

7.2 The main recommended methods include

Recommended based on viewing history
Recommended based on the history of likes/comments
Recommended based on search content
Share recommendations based on external data
Recommended based on the creator's correlation
Recommended based on current popularity
Recommended by region

7.3 Advantages

You can get recommended content of interest, including new videos recently released and videos that have been published for a long time (such as several years), and these videos are often clicked. Each time you refresh the recommended content, the recommended content will change, and users with obsessive-compulsive disorder can also get the opportunity to filter content.

7.4 Existing problems

The same video will be recommended again after a long period of time (personal speculation may also be that Google algorithms recognize that the video has a high correlation with the current hotspot).
If you accidentally watch a certain video, you may receive relevant recommendations, and the error tolerance rate is poor.
Some recommended content is almost completely uninterested (even doubt whether it is intentional recommendation of certain content, conspiracy theory?).

Compared with Xiami Music’s recommendation system, if you don’t like a certain song, you need to quickly choose to skip it. However, if you forget to skip or operate errors, users don’t have to worry too much, because Xiami AI’s self-learning is a long-term accumulation process, and individual operation errors will not affect the recommendation accuracy. In addition, Xiami Music allows users to set their own music preferences and then recommend them first according to the settings.

For YouTube, switching videos is more expensive than songs. YouTube lacks preference settings, so users almost lose the opportunity to actively correct system preference recommendations and can only passively accept it during use. There is no reason why we don't believe in Google's AI learning engine's capabilities, but obviously it also improves.

08 Creator Support

As mentioned above, YouTube not only provides video playback services for ordinary users and advertising services for merchants, but also has a large number of content creators. The creator can be an individual or a company. Creators are content producers of the entire platform, and their content quality directly determines whether users like content on YouTube.

To do this, YouTube offers a variety of ways to support creators:

Advertising division
Third-party products + advertising sponsorship
Exclusive member subscription service
Live Rewards
Community Activities
Edit background and data support

8.1 Advertising segmentation

Advertising sharing is the most important revenue model. Creators upload videos, users watch and lead traffic, advertisers choose to pay to place advertisements, and Google and creators can earn advertising revenue in proportion. Here, YouTube is the platform, creators are the first content producer, and advertisers are the customers. So what role is the user? The user is the audience and receives video information and advertising information. Users are also customers, because users can pay to purchase members to advertise or pay to subscribe to support creators.

YouTube allows creators to insert ads freely (provided that the video is greater than ten minutes), giving creators a high degree of autonomy.

8.2 Exclusive member subscription service

Due to the Matthew effect problem of advertising sharing, large channels often have a large number of viewing users, absorbing the main traffic and taking away the main advertising sharing, which is more popular among advertisers. Small channels, especially new channels, are difficult to get profits. Even if your video content is of high quality, it is a pity that only a few thousand playbacks are played, which lacks an advantage compared to millions of playbacks.

Afterwards, YouTube launched the function of member-exclusive service, that is, users can pay to join the creator membership service to obtain exclusive services, and charge a monthly subscription fee of US$4.99. Obviously, this is a copy of the design of Twitch. In the past, YouTube was a free subscription, while Twitch was a free follower and paid subscription. Now, YouTube is equivalent to providing the option of paid attention, with the goal of providing more financial support to creators in addition to advertising sharing, and this support is a long-term support.

Even if users do not watch videos, they can directly support creators through monthly payments.

8.3 Third-party products + advertising sponsorship

Google allows creators to place customized third-party products and provides exclusive sliding card locations (formerly creators can only provide product entrances with descriptions or links). Currently, the most common product is customized T-shirts, and users purchase them entirely are provided by third parties. This fan economy-driven approach also includes advertising sponsorship. If an advertiser thinks a new product is worth promoting on your channel, he will directly ask you to create a video and pay it to the creator based on traffic and other factors.

As an advertiser, you can advertise through the YouTube advertising system, or you can directly find interested creators for paid promotion. Google has no way to stop this "bypass". In fact, YouTube supports creators to obtain advertising sponsorship, but when it comes to paid promotion, creators are obliged to mark the video as “with paid promotional content” or make sponsorship statements in the video and description.

In other aspects, the YouTube Studio backend provides creators with a convenient video editing and management system, and creators' live videos can be archived for editing and publishing. After live broadcasting on Twitch, if you want to publish a video to YouTube, you need to record/download archived videos, edit and publish them, which is relatively time-consuming and labor-intensive. YouTube's one-stop live broadcast publishing method saves creators' time and operational costs. Creator Studio provides detailed statistics, which can view views, user data, manage user comments, etc., and is supported by the App (used by approximately 650,000 user creators on YouTube Studio).

In order to compete with Amazon, Google has enabled live broadcast function on YouTube, added rewards and other functions, and implemented exclusive live broadcast contracts and other methods, but did not gain a latecomer advantage in competition with Twitch. However, YouTube is good at community operations and organizes online and offline community activities every year to provide personal/brand marketing support for creators.

09 Functional imagination

9.1 Challenges

Cost, competition, content control, and privacy are the main challenges facing YouTube.

There is no doubt that the biggest problem YouTube has encountered is the increasing costs. On the one hand, the YouTube platform's videos are uploaded and viewed for free, and all the storage and bandwidth costs are passed on to Google servers. Therefore, we see that Google has been continuously building new data centers and building submarine optical cables.

Compared with other platforms, Twitch mainly focuses on live videos. The anchors and users have high requirements for real-time data streaming and resolution, but this cost can be alleviated by cloud computing and streaming technology. Twitch does not require long-term video hosting like YouTube (although Twitch allows to store live historical videos in a short period of time), does not require hot and cold data management, nor does it require long-term data security management and maintenance. Vimeo allows users to have more storage space and privacy control through different charging solutions.

Figure: Four paid solutions provided by Vimeo (also provides basic free solutions)

In addition to the underlying storage cost issue, YouTube also faces external shocks, such as Facebook, Amazon and other giants, as well as emerging companies. YouTube mainly relies on long videos, and companies driven by live streaming and short video businesses will snatch video consumer users to a certain extent. For this reason, Google can only continue to "photograph cats and draw tigers" to add competitor functions.

In terms of content control, YouTube has an audit mechanism and a reporting system to prevent illegal content. In terms of copyright protection, cooperate with copyright owners to conduct copyright monitoring. For videos containing copyrighted content, the creator will lose advertising revenue and may even be deleted. However, if a user uploads videos at a cost of nearly 0, controversial videos will appear.

In terms of age control, some video viewing requires users to reach legal age. In addition, YouTube Kids is a version specially launched for children, which is Google's move under regulatory pressure. Domestic video apps such as Bilibili have also launched a teenager model recently, which obviously should have arrived earlier.

Finally, YouTube also faces serious privacy issues. A powerful algorithm cannot be separated from a large amount of data, and the data comes from users. In fact, because the privacy issues of Google products have always existed. Especially when reading the terms related to Google Advertising Services, you can know that the system's analysis and control of user data is no longer controlled.

9.2 Change suggestions

How to improve YouTube products? Some suggestions are made for functional design.

(1) Less advertising

Playing videos should reduce the disturbance of advertisements. If the system places too many advertisements and the creators keep inserting advertisements, the viewing experience will be bad. Sometimes, users are annoyed and will quickly skip the ads and don’t remember the content of the ads and the advertiser.

Method adopted: Add an ad record bar below the video, and the ads present in this video are displayed in sequence. Even if the user skips below, he can make a second click. In addition, in membership services, you can explore the option of paying by day to advertise, and users can pay flexibly and cancel freely.

(2) Reduce the threshold for live broadcast on mobile phone

YouTube stipulates that you must have 1,000 subscribers for live streaming on mobile devices, and the desktop is not subject to this restriction. This makes it too high for users to start live broadcasts, and it is difficult for many people to start live broadcasts at any time. In contrast, domestic video app users will obtain live broadcast permissions after completing real-name authentication, which can quickly lead users to start their live broadcast journey. YouTube can strengthen the real-name authentication system, simplify the live broadcast process, lower the threshold for participation, and attract more users.

YouTube also needs richer live broadcast elements, such as emoticons, exclusive pendants, etc., to enhance the interaction and connection between anchors and audiences and produce better live broadcast effects.

(3) Adjust [Inbox]

Adjust your inbox to the secondary menu and click to open the inbox system. The original main interface navigation menu tab [Member] is replaced.

Reason: [Inbox] Although it is a bridge of connection between users and creators, its actual weight is weak and can be moved into the media library (or merge the two to redefine the menu name). The newly added [Member] menu enhances the status of membership services and establishes a quick entry to purchase members. At the same time, you can also access the author's third-party customized products, so that you can purchase Youtune's official products and services on this page, or purchase third-party products.

9.3 New features and imagination

Member Mall Service
Cloud Games: You can play games online directly in the App without installing a client.
Growth system: Change the state of being used for many years and still being used, establish a user growth system, and give rewards when it reaches its service life.

10 Localization attempts

Can YouTube enter the mainland Chinese market? If entry, will it cause industry shock? After Google Search withdrew from the mainland market, other major businesses were withdrawn. If YouTube wants to enter the mainland market, the problems that must be solved include:

Sensitive Content
Data storage and privacy security
Business Model
Differentiation

If Google can solve sensitive content and server problems, then there is only business model and competition left. The current domestic video and streaming media market is already a competition between Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, etc. It is obvious that Google, which suddenly entered, cannot establish its own advantages in an instant, or easily replace Youku, Tencent Video, and Bilibili.

If you want to try localization and gain market share in the mainland market, some feasible implementation plans include:

Quickly establish a payment system, build localized subscription services and reward services, and at this time, WeChat payment and Alipay access is required, and credit card payment methods are abandoned.
Develop new markets: education, tourism, e-sports, etc.
Support local original content.
Organize offline activities.

Just imagine, YouTube server is located in China and has started refined operations in the mainland market, with strong traffic growth. A group of high-quality creators have obtained good returns through YouTube and received joint interviews between YouTube and a well-known brand. Every day, users use WeChat or Alipay to purchase membership services, or directly sponsor it on the channel page to support creators. Google has provided a free trial advertising program and has quickly attracted a group of advertising manufacturers...

11 Summary

As a video platform, YouTube has achieved an absolute market position and lacks direct competitors in the market. The current main competition comes from giants such as Facebook and Amazon, and their businesses have begun to erode each other. YouTube is a content-driven platform with a wide range of content and users can obtain high-quality content. As a subsidiary of Google, YouTube generates most of its revenue through its advertising system, and the impact of advertising is huge, so advertising can be seen everywhere.

YouTube provides users with the world's largest video site, and also provides good financial support for creators, creating a strong publicity channel for advertisers. The app is simple in design and smooth in use. The app contains most of the functions on the desktop, bringing a convenient user experience to mobile users and enhancing multi-terminal service capabilities. However, the App client is not friendly enough to support creator operations, and the functions of creator studios have room for adjustment and optimization. It is expected that in the future, Youtube will bring more differentiated functions in commercial design and new technology applications, and continue to expand its platform advantages. This advantage can be maintained for a long time to come. Whether existing competitors and new entrants can challenge or even replace YouTube, and how they will do it is worth paying attention to.

#References#

Google Store: YouTube App

YouTube Statistics

Revealing how YouTube and Google algorithms work (Guillaume Chaslot, a former Google employee)

Google: Deep Neural Networks for YouTube Recommendations

YouTube Recommended System

Social Platform Comparison (Social 2018 Main Findings)

Author: STARMAN

Source: STARMAN

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