Youtuber

The term “youtuber” classifies people whose main or only platform is the channels (personal accounts ) on the YouTube video hosting platform ^[1] .

The youtube.com domain name was registered on February 14, 2005 by former Paypal employees Chad Hurley , and Javed Karim ^[2] . The very first YouTube channel was created on April 23, 2005 (by PDT; April 24, 2005 by UTC ) by one of the founders of the video service, Javed, and received the same name - Jawed ^{[3] [4]} . On that day the first video appeared on the channel under the name “ Me at zoo” ( Russian. I am at the zoo ) in the format of a vlog ^[5] .

In October 2005, the video service introduced a new feature - channel subscriptions ^[6] .

The New York Times claims that most YouTube videos until 2006 focused on various forms of talent: flipping tricks, imitation of singing, and others that were similar to what Saturday Night Live did ^[7] . By June 2006, various Hollywood and music companies began to offer collaboration with YouTube. The first, it is believed, was comedian blogger through ) ^[8] , then Canadian singer Justin Bieber (via singer Asher ) ^[9] and the physician who became a political satirist, (via the ) ^{[10] [11]} . In 2007, the “Affiliate Program” was launched on YouTube - a mechanism for the distribution of advertising revenue, which allowed YouTube users to earn revenue from videos uploaded to the platform ^[12] .

By October 2015, there were more than 17 thousand channels on YouTube, the number of subscribers of which was over one hundred thousand, and about 1.5 thousand, the number of subscribers of which was more than one million ^[13] .

According to numerous studies, YouTube has become an important source of information and entertainment for Generation Y. Influential YouTubes are often called micro-celebrities ^[1] . Since YouTube is widely represented as a video platform and social network using the algorithm, people are sure that YouTube is not connected with the established commercial system of celebrity culture, but it seems self-governing and independent. People are convinced that YouTube is considered the most reliable source of information, which is also facilitated by the direct connection between YouTube and the audience using YouTube ^{[13] [1]} .

In a survey conducted by the University of Southern California in 2014 among 13-18 year olds in the USA about who is more influential for them: YouTube celebrities or regular celebrities, youtuber took the first five places in the ranking, and the comedic duo Smosh took first place ^[13] . A second survey in 2015, statistics showed that the six first places were taken by YouTube celebrities, and YouTube according to their version became the most influential ^{[13] [14]} .

Several YouTube celebrities, along with their influence on the media sphere, such as Zoe Sagg ^[1] and Puydipai ^[15] , have become the objects of scientific research. Because of this level of influence, Robert Hovden advocated creating a new index, similar to the g-index and h-index , to measure people's performance and impact on YouTube ^[16] .

The notable success of YouTube figures attracted the attention of various companies and corporations that were ready to sponsor YouTube videos for the appearance of their products in them. In 2015, Forbes economic magazine reported that YouTube activist Pudeepay earned more than $ 12 million, which is more than the earnings of popular figures in the film industry, Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow ^[17] . In August 2018, retail chains such as Walmart , , and others began searching for ambassadors for their companies in the face of popular youtuber ^[18] .

At the end of each year, starting in 2010, YouTube presents a video in which many prominent figures of video hosting take part and various popular trends and tendencies of the outgoing year are covered ^{[19] [20]} .

• Where in Russia there are so many coaches, youtuber and bloggers // Gazeta.Ru , 10/10/2019