When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion, it was clear to all of us that the video social network was more than a passing fad.
I tried to find the latest statistics on YouTube, but according to Wikipedia, few statistics are publicly available regarding the number of videos on YouTube. It did state…
“… in July 2006, the company revealed that more than 100 million videos were being watched every day, and 2.5 billion videos were watched in June 2006. 50,000 videos were being added per day in May 2006, and this increased to 65,000 by July.”
I can’t image the number of videos or the volume of traffic on YouTube today.
Another eye opening statistic I found was that roughly 50 percent of YouTube’s users are under the age of 20. Again, this dates back to 2006, but how would these statistics sound to an admissions representative from a college or university?
When I investigated further to see if there are institutions of higher education taking advantage of YouTube’s services, I came across UC Berkeley who was the first university to launch a YouTube channel.
By utilizing YouTube, UC Berkeley has created an interactive learning environment. Berkeley’s channel allows visitors to peer into campus life and its students. Visitors can also watch full length class sessions, including bioengineering, chemistry, physics and others.
This is a tremendous recruiting tool. Prospective students can get a glimpse of what the university is all about without even stepping foot on campus. And at what cost is this to Berkeley? Zero! YouTube is free. Not only that, it saves server space because YouTube stores the video on its own servers.
In addition, Berkeley is able to tap into a new market, increasing the university’s exposure. With the ability to create hyperlinks, Berkeley can catapult traffic back and forth from its YouTube channel to its main college Web site. YouTube is providing another means to drive traffic and increase visibility for UC Berkeley.
If it is all about an online experience, then Berkeley appears ahead of the game.
