In his novel "La vuelta completa" published in Argentina by Seix Barral, the unforgettable Juan José Saer appeals to the metaphor of the Olympic rings to explain the way in which the universes of different characters one day come together.
At certain moments, product of the natural disorder of things, the lives of the protagonists are linked, like overlapping circles, in indissoluble points of contact.
With their baggage on their backs, they finally find themselves within the limits of a city -inland, riverside and torrid- that contains their habits and has reserved a common destiny for all of them.
Social networks act as that latent Saerian city like breathing: they are the ecosystem where, sooner rather than later, we will all end up finding each other (or perhaps, also, the opposite).
They have removed us from the palpable world to refound our links, not only with the other, but with ourselves, with our free time and
also with the productive one
.
It is anachronistic at this point to suggest that we are witnessing a paradigm shift on the very idea of life from the revolutionary appearance of Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and WhatsApp, but it is worth stopping to rethink it a bit due to a specific date: This Tuesday, February 14, Valentine's Day, YouTube celebrates its 18th birthday, it reaches the age of majority.
In this way, just as the social network of videos enters a new life stage, many young people all over the planet who were also born in 2005, live their relationship with YouTube as part of something added.
It is not enough to say that it is one more tool of technology.
It is something that came with growth and has been given to you naturally.
YouTube reached them before their parents, following a common sense idea, formally told them what this is all about.
They are suitable, self-taught social network.
They are part, no longer of a collective located in the virtual, but of a planet that feeds itself without pause in a content chain that knows no limits.
YouTube in numbers
platform users
YouTube has billions of users connected monthly.
Every day people watch billions of hours of video and generate billions of views.
More than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
Localized versions of YouTube exist in 100 countries around the world in 80 languages.
Today there are more than 35 million weekly users in more than 100 countries using YouTube Kids.
Between July 2021 and June 2022, YouTube has paid more than $6 billion to the music industry ($2 billion more than in 2021).
For the second year in a row, user-generated content accounted for more than 30% of payments to artists, songwriters and rights holders.
Channels with the highest revenue in South America
Four of the 10 countries of the continent have a children's channel as their main profit.
» Estimated income in US$, from the start of activity of each channel
YouTube exceeds 80 million Music and Premium subscribers worldwide, including trial subscribers.
YouTube Music has an extensive catalog with over 100 million official tracks, plus playlists, remixes, music videos, live performances, and covers.
Globally, YouTube Shorts average more than 50 billion views daily and are viewed by more than 1.5 billion registered users each month.
In April 2022, Shorts with content taken from long videos generated more than 100 billion views.
But the numbers, just as they are huge, can seem cold.
Behind every content, there are people.
Many of them are the same young people who were born with YouTube and who now not only entertain themselves, but also live off the network.
They generate money, in significant amounts, and they even think their lives are completely dedicated to the platform.
davus story
The YouTube.com domain was registered on February 14, 2005, and in May of that year YouTube opened to the public with a beta version.
Me at the Zoo (Me in the Zoo) was the first video on YouTube.
Lasts 18 seconds.
It stars one of the platform's three creators Jawed Karim (along with Chad Hurley and Steve Chen), who filmed himself in a zoo with some elephants in the background.
Karim looks at the camera and says: “Okay, here we are, in front of the elephants.
The good thing about these guys is that they have really big trunks.
And that's great, that's pretty much all I have to say."
Davo Xeneize was then two years old.
He ran by his parents' house, where he still lives, in Boulogne, in the northern part of Greater Buenos Aires.
In his life there was always a computer.
But during the first years there was only one for three brothers.
Their parents had established a criteria: one hour per day for each of them.
Davo tells the author of this article by video call.
You see an ordinary kid, 20 years old.
His face betrays that he is escaping from adolescence towards adulthood.
Davo is one of the best-known youtubers in the country.
His theme is soccer;
the differential value of him, humor.
If he is walking down the street, it is common for Davo to be stopped by pedestrians to ask for photos.
Especially those from Boca
because his content, the videos he uploads, at a rate of one a day (but there are three days) are the vast majority about the great love of his life: Boca Juniors.
“Since I was a kid I have YouTube to see anything I want to see.
It is true that we grew in parallel, YouTube and us, ”she reflects.
When Davo turned 10, his parents gave him his first personal computer.
“For me, that meant everything.
Suddenly, he consumed a lot of videos.
But also, the file appeared.
Everything that I had not seen: Riquelme's goals, Palermo's goals, everything from Boca that had happened before I was born: my world and the information completely opened up ”, explains the youtuber.
“My parents put a lot of restrictions on me.
They were always pending.
But anyway, I always had a lot of freedom, ”he admits.
So, Davo's relationship with the social network could already be said to occupy a good part of his life.
On December 21, 2015, he uploaded the first video of himself.
He was finishing his first year of high school.
What was uploaded, with classic editor expertise?
A content titled "10 great goals from Juan Román Riquelme in Boca".
Later he raised those of Palermo, those of Tevez, those of Maradona.
He has been uploading videos non-stop for seven years.
“When I finished high school I wanted to study to be a public accountant.
But I did so well with this that I dedicated myself fully.
My parents both work, but thanks to what I earn I can already help in the family economy, ”she reveals.
He says that he is doing well, that he earns well, in dollars.
Davo is part of another flow of the economy.
“I earn based on ads.
If you upload a video and it has a million views, you put 4 ads on it.
Those ads are paid by YouTube.
Views from the United States pay more than those from Latin America.
My average is 500 thousand views per video.
The video I uploaded last night is already close to 500 thousand and I have three more videos ready”, explains Davo with the amazing confidence of an expert.
In several of his published performances he explored humor.
A youthful humor, of physical histrionics and perhaps little complexity.
But in the conversation you can see a solid young man with specific definitions.
A serious guy Davo evolved to producer levels.
He finally has a small business.
For example, he doesn't edit anymore.
Now he produces and then a video editor that works for him turns the raw of his ideas into the final finished content,
The rest of the time Davo has his friends, his Friday and Saturday outings.
The rest of the time Davo is a fervent fan and feeds his dream of meeting Riquelme, whom he never saw in person.
His parents are getting used to people recognizing him on the street.
Most of those who stop him to ask for a selfie are followers of his age, fans of Boca.
He says that he has many friends and that he plays soccer three or four times a week.
At sight he perceives that he lives the life he wants.
But he still wants more.
"When I look at the numbers I have, the visits, I feel that I have to do better," he says.
In Argentina
Davo is a star on the stage of what happens with the social network in Argentina.
According to a survey carried out by Ipsos, the spectators?
in Argentina they say that YouTube is number 1 in the delivery of relevant content.
96% say they can find good content
on YouTube, significantly more than the average for other platforms (82%).
When thinking about the world in a year, 86% of viewers in Argentina say that YouTube will have their favorite content.
According to Comscore, YouTube reached more than 31.9 million people over the age of 18 in Argentina, by June 2022.
More than 15 million people watched YouTube (or YouTube TV) on their TV in Argentina, according to data from December 2021.
olympic circles
That is why Davo's life meets the lives of the children of those who read this article.
But the lives of the readers also intersect with this story and therefore also, as the Saerian metaphor says, with that of others in remote places or directly nowhere.
Those others are the ones who gave that initial kick in 2005. Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, formerly young enthusiasts looking to create a site to upload videos that they recorded themselves but also a dating website.
Today they are estranged moguls, each launched into the world of innovation with consulting firms of their own.
Since 2006, the year in which You Tube was sold for 1.65 billion dollars, Google has taken over.
That is, the practically total dominance of the content
generated on the networks by the fundamental actors of this mega-business: ourselves and our impetus to show ourselves or exhibit everything that crosses us and happens.
The 50 most watched channels
Explore the data to learn more
Press play on the list of all-time hits compiled by the Redes de Clarín team
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