Claim: Some of YouTube's content was created for YouTube.

YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno , California . The service was created by three former PayPal employees -- Chad Hurley , Steve Chen , and Jawed Karim -- in February 2005 . Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$ 1.65 billion ; YouTube now operates as one of Google 's subsidiaries . The site allows users to upload , view , rate , share , add to favorites , report and comment on videos , subscribe to other users , and it makes use of WebM , H. 264/MPEG -4 AVC , and Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos . Available content includes video clips , TV show clips , music videos , short and documentary films , audio recordings , movie trailers and other content such as video blogging , short original videos , and educational videos .   Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals , but media corporations including CBS , the BBC , Vevo , and Hulu offer some of their material via YouTube as part of the YouTube partnership program . Unregistered users can only watch videos on the site , while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos and add comments to videos . Videos deemed potentially offensive are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old .   YouTube earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense , a program which targets ads according to site content and audience . The vast majority of its videos are free to view , but there are exceptions , including subscription-based premium channels , film rentals , as well as YouTube Red , a subscription service offering ad-free access to the website and access to exclusive content made in partnership with existing users . , there are more than 400 hours of content uploaded to YouTube each minute , and one billion hours of content is watched on YouTube every day . , the website is ranked as the second most popular site in the world by Alexa Internet , a web traffic analysis company .