YouTube
Summary
Video publishing platform with monetization options and comprehensive social features.
Parent organisation: Google / Alphabet
Type of organisation: Publicly-listed company (or group)
Market share: Market dominance
Pricing: Free
Skills needed to set-up: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Requires audience sign-in to use: No, sign-in is optional
Parent organisation: Google / Alphabet
Type of organisation: Publicly-listed company (or group)
Market share: Market dominance
Pricing: Free
Skills needed to set-up: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Requires audience sign-in to use: No, sign-in is optional
Pros
Open Source alternatives available
Releases new features regularly
Plain English TOS
Clear data policies
Allows data export
Allows data deletion
Has accessibility statement
Shares diversity data
Cons
Newsworthy business issues/challenges - Widely reported friction with workforce across Google, YouTube’s new kids’ content system has creators scrambling, Gaming app is shutting down this week
Lack pricing transparency
Newsworthy technical issues - YouTube DOWN – Video streaming service NOT WORKING for thousands of users, YouTube is down: Video streaming site crashes for users across the UK, Google recovers from outage that took down YouTube, Gmail, and Snapchat, This article is more than 1 year old YouTube outage: video service down for hours before being restored
Newsworthy security breaches - 2018 Google data breach, Massive wave of account hijacks hits YouTube creators
Full Product Data Collection
Data collected January-February 2020
| Product name | YouTube |
| Product URL | https://www.youtube.com/ |
| Parent organisation | Google / Alphabet |
| Workflow category | Publishing & distribution |
| Date product founded | 2005 |
| Product description | Video publishing platform with monetization options and comprehensive social features. |
| What type of company or organisation is the product owned by? | Publicly-listed company (or group) |
| Is the company profit-making? | Yes, profitable |
| How is this product funded? | Subscriptions, Advertising |
| What market share does the tool have? | Market dominance |
| Is there an Open Source alternative in this product space? | Yes. PeerTube, DTube |
| When did the company last release new features? | November 2019: Redesigned homepage |
| Have they shared details of the product roadmap? | No |
| Is there talk of the product raising further investment? | No |
| Is there talk of the product being acquired? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy business issues or challenges in the last 12 months? | Yes. Widely reported friction with workforce across Google, YouTube’s new kids’ content system has creators scrambling, Gaming app is shutting down this week |
| Is there a pricing model listed on the website? | No / cannot find |
| How clear & transparent is this pricing model? | Product is free but it’s unclear |
| What is the range of prices offered? | Paid subscriptions are available for consumers, but the platform is free for publishers. |
| What factors drive higher pricing? | N/A |
| What skills are needed to get this tool set up & usable? | Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it) |
| What skills are needed to USE this tool day-to-day? | Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it) |
| Does this tool use proprietary file formats for saving documents & outputs? | Defaults to common open standard file formats |
| Is the product reliant on 3rd-party APIs or interoperability to function? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy technical issues in the last 3 years? | Yes. YouTube DOWN – Video streaming service NOT WORKING for thousands of users, YouTube is down: Video streaming site crashes for users across the UK, Google recovers from outage that took down YouTube, Gmail, and Snapchat, This article is more than 1 year old YouTube outage: video service down for hours before being restored |
| How clear is the Terms of Service for users (i.e. publishing customers)? | Simplified, plain English TOS |
| Does the product have a data collection & usage policy on its website? (Can be a GDPR statement)? | Yes, comprehensive. |
| Is their data policy “GDPR everywhere”? | No different rules in different markets |
| Does the product require your audience to sign-in to use it? | No, sign-in is optional |
| IF SIGN IN REQUIRED: Does audience sign-in use 3rd party platforms? | Google authentication |
| Does the public product website mention how to export or transfer your data to another service? | Yes: Export/transfer publisher content, Yes: Export publisher metadata, Yes: Audience can data export |
| Does the public product website mention how to delete your data? | Yes: for both publisher and audience data |
| Have there been any newsworthy security breaches with this product in the last 3 years? | Yes. 2018 Google data breach, Massive wave of account hijacks hits YouTube creators |
| Does the company have an accessibility statement on its website? | Yes |
| Does the company release information on the diversity of the workforce? | Yes (for the whole of Google) |