YouTube...

It’s arguably agreeable that YouTube has been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money. Upon further research and firm analysis, I utterly disagree with it, but would rather point out that YouTube is created on the basis of money and entertainment as its primary objective (but not 'sole purpose' as intended)

[1If it is not for money, then YouTube will not be created in the first place.] Let’s face it; if there’s no money, would YouTube exist in the first place? YouTube, like any other internet businesses, emphasizes greatly on the importance of profit-making. Business itself clearly defines as 2 the activity of making, buying, selling or supplying goods or services for money. As such, internet businesses (Google, YouTube etc.) should be held accountable under such definition and not be criticised for making millions or billions in revenue.

Aside from money-making, YouTube also creates an excellent avenue for amateur videographers to publicise their works for public viewing besides enabling vast audiences to comment on the quality of the videos produced and gauging the popularity of such videos through in-built hit counters. For instance, Haffizzuddin Zakaria got into YouTube almost a year ago and posted a song called Right Here, which received numerous positive feedbacks from his first video posting thus inspired him to rope up in his friends to make more videos to upload on the site 3. Moreover, YouTube provides ample job opportunities to run its core business, aside from creating new opportunities for visual-enthusiasts to market themselves through YouTube.

The video-embedding feature also enables all videos to be streamed anywhere, likewise at MySpace and Friendster, just to name a few. As most email providers restricts users from sending files exceeding 10MB, YouTube extends the capacity by providing a massive 100 MB or 10-minute limitation for all videos7 to permit users to send in and view large video files.

YouTube users have been increasing on a rapid rate, with users now watching more than 100 million videos per day4. With such a huge audience, amateur videographers are indeed making their presence felt through their video or films, in addition to providing a safe testing ground for filmmakers to observe how they fare in pursuing their passion for visuals. [5The most significant one will be the 44-second film showing graffiti over the king's face…] As opposed, YouTube has pledged evidently that it’s against defamatory, unlawful and copyrighted materials as stated in its terms of use and community guidelines. Although certain copyrighted materials are found lingering on its site, nevertheless YouTube has always uphold its responsibility to remove such contents on a regular basis 6.

Undoubtedly, it would be practically impossible and illogical for YouTube to eradicate them as soon as they’re uploaded. On your accounts of inaccurate medical information being circulated through YouTube, YouTube certainly doesn’t constitute a qualified medical information website for public to gain information on related health issues. As such, parents, as matured human beings, alike should be wise enough to seek professional advice on such an important issue.


1, 5 Excerpt from Yueh Phing’s article (YouTube)
2 Source: Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary
3 The Star, StarTwo, page 2, 25/4/2007
4 Traffic monitor Hitwise, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5186618.stm
5 http://www.youtube.com/t/terms
6 http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=55777&topic=10551
7 http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=55743&topic=10527

This article is composed in opposed to Yueh Phing’s article (YouTube) available for public viewing at http://interestinghappenings.blogspot.com/2007/04/youtube.html . This article is intended purely an opinion and shouldn’t be held liable for any discrepancy, if present. It’s mainly my two cents' worth.