05 January 2024 , 13:51
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It has a whopping 112 million users per day - but some people are only just learning how YouTube got its name. The online video-sharing platform was created by three former PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, in February 2005.
It was bought by Google 16 months later for $1.65 billion - and now has at least 800 million videos on the platform, as of 2023. However, one confused Quora user asked: "What is the meaning of Tube in YouTube?" In response, many users claim Tube refers to television, with the entire word YouTube meaning 'you television'.
This directly relates to how users interact with the platform - either watching videos of their choosing or creating their own as content creators, also known as YouTubers. One user answered: "The name YouTube is a proprietary name. Although I've seen nothing official from YouTube about the meaning of the name, it's not hard to guess at the meaning of 'Tube' (at least for my generation of 50-somethings and older).
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"We used to call (and still do) the TV as "the tube" (mainly because in my generation, TV sets were cathode ray tubes)." Another user added: "It’s probably off the point, but while I’ve been watching some videos on Quantum Mechanics, there was this professor who said, “Let’s now put this into a u-tube” (test tube). The term instantly rang like an alarm and that’s how I found this question page in the first place.
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"So maybe this term is a pun, relating to both the old TV models as mentioned above, and the test tubes, due to the experimental nature that website/service provides." A third user suggested: "The term "tube" in "YouTube" doesn't have a specific meaning in itself. The name "YouTube" itself is a combination of two words: "You" and "Tube."
"You" signifies that the platform is intended for users to upload and share their content, emphasizing the idea of user-generated videos. It's a platform for individuals to express themselves, share their interests, and connect with others through video content.
The "Tube" part of "YouTube" is a reference to the term "television." In the past, televisions were often called "TV" for short, and the term "tube" was used to refer to television sets that used cathode ray tubes (CRTs) as the display technology. The inclusion of "Tube" in the name was a nod to the idea of a platform that delivers video content similar to television but through an online medium.
Therefore, "YouTube" essentially means a platform where users can broadcast, watch, and share videos in a manner akin to television but on the internet, emphasizing user-generated content and a video-sharing community."