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Activation of the domain
The domain name "YouTube.com" was activated on February 14, 2005, and the website was developed over the subsequent months. The creators offered the public a preview of the site in May 2005, six months before YouTube made its official debut. In November 2005, venture firm Sequoia Capital invested an initial $3.5 million. -
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YouTube
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Google's acquisition of YouTube
By the end of 2006, YouTube was a big freaking deal, helping to make “You” the TIME Magazine person of the year. -
Launch of the Partner program
By sharing revenue (something, by the way, no other social-content site does), YouTube created not just a content ecosystem, but an economic ecosystem. -
Launch of Video Targeting
YouTube Video Targeting enables you to choose which videos you want your advertisements to be on. That itself is amazing idea, especially if you’re able to get a spot on some of the top videos. Later, as the platform was improved, advertisers were able to narrow down the selection of videos, based on “keywords (like politics or fashion), viewer demographics (like age and gender), interest-based categories or some combination of the three.” -
New Design
On March 31, 2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface and increasing the time users spend on the site. Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented: "We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter." In May 2010, it was reported that YouTube was serving more than two billion videos a day, which it described as "nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major US television networks combined".
