If you’ve been keeping an eye on your YouTube Analytics over the past few weeks you may have noticed some out-of-the-ordinary things, from spikes in mobile views to lower-than-average video views. These irregularities may have been due to a bug, which YouTube is working to fix over the next few days.
We're kicking off our upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp with a special keynote presentation by Ella Chick (left), the digital producer at Anderson Cooper 360°. She'll discuss how the network uses social media for breaking news and leverages social media to draw attention to organizations and causes. Learn more about our program and register here. 
Well folks, it’s finally happened! After 160 days on YouTube, Gangnam Style has become the first video to hit 1 billion YouTube views. And despite rumors that Psy’s viral hit crossing the billion view threshold would fulfill Nostradamus’ end of the world prophecy and trigger a cataclysmic event leading to the ultimate demise of the human race, it looks like we’re all still standing.
December 21, 2012—”the end of the world”—is less than 48 hours away. For decades people around the globe have looked forward to the fateful day with nervous anticipation. But over the past couple of months something has happened to change all that, at least for online video enthusiasts. The end of the world has fallen by the wayside as anticipation for a new YouTube milestone has come riding in on its invisible horse—Psy’s Gangnam style is going to hit 1 billion views any day now and that has become far more exciting for many than the end of days.
As Gangnam Style approaches 1 billion views, another viral video is making history on YouTube as well. Today, ‘Charlie bit my finger’ became the first non-professional, non-music video to surpass half a million YouTube views. The video hit the landmark just in time for the launch of three new original web shows staring viral stars Charlie and Harry, along with their younger brother Jasper.
Over the weekend, Psy’s Gangnam Style galloped past Justin Bieber’s Baby to become the number one most-viewed YouTube video of all time—an amazing feat accomplished in just four months. But hold on to your invisible horses, because if Psy’s video continues to rack up views at the same rate as it has been, the Korean pop star is on his way to make YouTube history again in mid-December, when his video will be the first to reach a whopping 1 billion views!
This morning, TED is celebrating a major milestone—one billion TEDTalk views. To commemorate this momentous occasion, TED has released an interactive timeline, starting with the first 6 TEDTalks in 2006 and carrying through today’s 1 billion views announcement.
“We’re experiencing a massive consumer shift,” said YouTube’s Global Head of Content, Robert Kyncl, at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit this week. Consumers are watching more online video on mobile devices than ever before and, as a result, “mobile has increased from 6% to 25% in the last 18 months across the whole of YouTube.”
Over the past few months you may have noticed a change in the types of videos that are showing up in the suggested videos in YouTube’s sidebar. Flashy thumbnails and videos with mucho views have been replaced with content that has been proven to engage and keep viewers around. In a recent post on the YouTube Creator blog, head of creator marketing communications at YouTube, Eric Meyerson, talks about why YouTube now focuses on watch time.
One of YouTube’s biggest mysteries is a mystery no more—in the latest video from Numberphile, YouTube Analytics Product Manager Ted Hamilton explains exactly why YouTube videos freeze at 301.
A new member has just been inducted into YouTube’s 1 billion views club and the channel may come as somewhat of a surprise to some—it’s Hulu! That’s right, the 37th channel to cross the 1 billion views mark on YouTube is another video streaming site.
