Facebook is rapidly becoming more of a player in the online video sector. In the U.S., it’s actually fifth behind YouTube (naturally), Yahoo, Fox, and Vevo for unique viewers.

And the future looks to be heading in Facebook’s way. And how.

The Ubiquitous Facebook

It’s no secret that Facebook is now huge, with an estimated 500 million members. And the recent privacy row doesn’t seem to have reduced the popularity of Facebook in the slightest. In fact, the publicity (however negative) may have given the site a boost.

Facebook isn’t just growing in popularity, with the way people use the site also evolving. While keeping up with friends is still important, Facebook is also becoming a prime destination for sharing media content, including online video.

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YouTube has experimented with live streaming various events over the last couple of years, but there’s been no attempt to expand the effort to a wider audience. Until now, possibly.

YouTube Live Streaming

YouTube isn’t a complete noob when it comes to live streaming. The biggest event it has far streamed live is the U2 concert from Pasadena last October. And 10 million people are estimated to have tuned in to watch.

There have also been presidential speeches and healthcare debates. But then came a definite upscaling of the effort when YouTube streamed all 60 matches of the Indian Premier League tournament over the course of 45 days.

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YouTube is very happy to have its fifth birthday, and with a record number of people watching a record number of videos for a record amount of time. But it wants more. It wants to compete with the behemoth that is broadcast television.

Online Vs Broadcast TV

As popular as online video is right now, it’s still massively behind broadcast TV in terms of the amount of time spent watching. In essence, if something is available on traditional television, most people will choose that method of viewing than the online option.

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YouTube is integrating Google Moderator into the site, with all channel owners able to add the crowdsourcing platform to their channels. Which could open up some interesting possibilities for dialog between users and content creators

YouTube Community

YouTube has a large and very vocal community. The vast majority of videos generate comments and ratings. And while the comments aren’t always pleasant, they’re usually on topic, with the exception of the obvious and unavoidable spam which crops up from time to time.

Google Moderator

Google Moderator is a social platform that launched in 2008 but which has failed to really get much publicity. It can be used to foster answer to questions or suggestions to problems by anyone willing to contribute.

And it’s now arrived on YouTube in a big way.

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YouTube is now officially five-years-old, with the site having launched in beta in May 2005. YouTube is celebrating this fact, naturally, and the fact that it is now serving two billion video views a day. Which is an incredible achievement.

YouTube Turns Five

YouTube is now five-years-old. Officially. We here at WebTVWire already celebrated this once back in February, which is actually when the YouTube domain was first registered by co-founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. But the launch didn’t occur for a further three months.

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There have been incredible rises to fame attributed to YouTube over the last few years, but Greyson Chance has now blown them all away in terms of going from a zero to a hero in the shortest time.

YouTube Fame

YouTube has made plenty of people famous in the five years since the site was launched.

There are the ordinary people lifted to extraordinary heights after appearing in viral videos. Notables include David after Dentist, JK Wedding Dance, and Judson Laipply with his Evolution Of Dance.

Then there is Susan Boyle, whose appearance on Britain’s Got Talent got uploaded to YouTube, where it spread like wildfire, making her a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and all over the world.

Then there are the two filmmakers whose careers were given a huge lift after short films they’d made appeared on the site, where they were spotted by Hollywood bigwigs.

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Believe it or not, YouTube is one possible route to Hollywood these days. Following in the footsteps of unknown Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Alvarez comes Patrick Jean and his Pixels short.

YouTube Pulling Power

YouTube is much more than clips of cats doing funny things these days. Viral video hits can turn their makers and participants into stars.

Lauren Luke is now an in-demand Hollywood make-up artist, and she got that gig purely from uploading video clips of herself applying make-up to YouTube.

Lucas Cruikshank has not only made a ton of money from his ever-popular Fred character, but there’s also a movie on the way. Not bad for a squeaky kid playing an even squeakier kid.

And best of all was the story at the end of last year which saw Federico Alvarez land a $30 million movie budget on the strength of a $500 short film called Ataque de Panico! which he uploaded to YouTube where his skills were brought to the attention of people in the industry.

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