YouTube's viral appeal

Book review of Videocracy: How YouTube Is Changing the World . . . with Double Rainbows, Singing Foxes, and Other Trends We Can't Stop Watching

Videocracy

How YouTube is Changing the World …With Double Rainbows, Singing Foxes, and Other Trends We Can’t Stop Watching

Kevin Allocca

Bloomsbury

336 pages; Rs 499

YouTube, the ubiquitous video-sharing website, was bought by Google from its founders in November 2006 for $1.65 billion. It is currently valued at close to $40 billion, which tells us as much about the site’s stickiness as Google’s ability to spot money-making opportunities.

Kevin Allocca, the head of trends at YouTube, charts the website’s rise in the book under review, focusing on how the website has shaped video watching on the internet, and increasingly, elsewhere. With anyone with an internet connection and a camera now able to post videos, the nature of broadcast has changed dramatically, and YouTube is largely the sole medium that has driven the change.

YouTube changed culture broadcast not merely by allowing anyone to post on the platform but also by compensating the content producer. This changed the nature of content production, making it a viable career option for anyone with a message. In India, for example, a number of channels, from Nisha Madhulika’s (cookery) to Shruti Anand’s (makeup), earn several lakhs per month, having grown from one-person operations to full-fledged studios.

Mr Allocca spends some time detailing the site’s monetisation model, which is useful for anyone who has wondered why their channel refuses to take off. How are views calculated? How does the site distinguish between auto-play and deliberate clicks? What happens when a viewer abandons a video midway? Mr Allocca imagines each of these scenarios and explains how they can affect the amount you make on the site.

Mr Allocca divides the book into different themes, from music to comedy, politics to special interest. Nearly every genre has been touched by the democratisation engendered by YouTube. One of Mr Allocca’s first — and instantly recognisable — examples is Korean pop star Psy’s “Gangnam Style”, which debuted on YouTube in August 2012 and became the first video on the site to cross a billion views.

The chapter on politics is especially interesting. The effect of social media on politics is a much-debated topic in our times. On one hand, Twitter and Facebook helped enlarge the scope of, say, the recent protests in Iran, and on the other, these websites have been blamed for accentuating the ideological divide between liberals and conservatives in different countries.

Mr Allocca, naturally, takes the more sanguine view, crediting the rise of mobile and YouTube with fundamentally changing journalism so that even off-the-cuff remarks from politicians can now make it to mainstream news. This is an interesting development and may even do some good but, equally, it raises questions about privacy and propriety. Gawker, for example, had to shut shop in 2016 after it declared bankruptcy in the aftermath of the Hulk Hogan sex tapes. 

That said, YouTube pioneered several developments that followed. Its feedback mechanism redefined the dynamic between producer and viewer, resulting in the rise of streaming channels like Netflix that use sophisticated tools to help viewers along on their journey to binge-watching. Mr Allocca also covers how even mainstream media is increasingly taking cues from the web. He cites Jimmy Kimmel in this regard — with his Halloween candy prank and “Mean Tweets” segment, Mr Kimmel’s show now includes content typically found on YouTube.

Yet, this is a continuing conversation, and Mr Allocca is too quick at times to give his employer the benefit of doubt. I had no recollection of a number of YouTube superstars that he had me believe were the biggest thing on the planet. I also got the feeling that some of the content he was celebrating, such as supercuts and remixes, while great in itself, was ultimately derivative of the real stuff produced by the real superstars.

Which brings us to what I would like to call the YouTube conundrum: The site is great at spotting and giving voice to fresh talent but for the talent to reach somewhere, they still need to go through mainstream channels. In music, this could mean cutting a record deal, as the Australian Troye Sivan has done. In comedy, for example, a lot of those who started on YouTube, such as Kanan Gill and Tanmay Bhat, have branched out to live gigs or streaming sites.

This is not to say that the media space will not continue to witness dramatic changes. What is likely is that the boundaries between different platforms will disappear, at least for the viewer. 

The Crown, at a budget of $100 million, is such an expensive show that even television channels would have balked at bankrolling it. It now streams on Netflix and has proved to be a money-spinner for the platform.

Meanwhile, YouTube will continue to be where viral clips find home or new stars emerge. Mr Allocca will have his hands full spotting new trends. For his next book, though, he should look east and focus on the exciting new content uploading on the website from the developing world.