How big is YouTube? (ethanzuckerman.com)

Article summary

Researchers used a method called 'drunk dialing' to estimate the size of YouTube by guessing random video URLs and checking if they exist. They collected over 10,000 random YouTube videos and estimated that there are around 13.325 billion videos on the platform. The study also found that the median YouTube video has only 39 views. The researchers plan to maintain a dashboard with updated statistics on YouTube video counts.

Main themes

• YouTube size estimation
• drunk dialing method
• online misinformation
• video distribution
• sampling bias
• platform manipulation

What commenters say

• The method used to estimate YouTube's size is clever and effective, but it may be vulnerable to interference from YouTube if they choose to return random videos for non-existent IDs.
• YouTube's video IDs may not be completely random, but this does not affect the accuracy of the estimation method.
• The study's findings highlight the importance of considering the denominator when analyzing online phenomena, such as misinformation.
• Some commenters question the accuracy of the estimate due to potential biases in the sampling method.
• Others argue that the study's results are useful for understanding the long tail of YouTube content and the distribution of views across videos.
• There are concerns about the potential for YouTube to manipulate the results by returning fake or cached videos for non-existent IDs.
• The discussion also touches on the broader issue of online misinformation and the challenges of defining and measuring it.