As of the fourth quarter of 2018, 27 percent of internet users worldwide accessed YouTube at least once per day. In the United States, 57 percent of YouTube users stated that they accessed the platform on a daily basis in order to follow celebrities, brands, and keep up with societal topics. These activities represent a pivot from its original usage intentions from almost 15 years ago: YouTube was originally intended as a platform on which users can post original content thought to be interesting, funny or worth for other reasons. However, as the website has since grown to become a powerful money-making tool. With two billion monthly logged-in viewers worldwide, the company can count on a lot of eyeballs for monetizing its advertising content and this drives the types of content that are uploaded and consumed on YouTube. In 2018, the online video portal's U.S. net video advertising revenue amounted to 3.36 billion U.S. dollars, up from 2.16 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.
The rise in smartphones and other mobile device usage has also helped increase the consumption of YouTube videos on the go. YouTube also ranks as the most popular mobile apps in both Google Play and the Apple App Store worldwide. The platform's standalone mobile appYouTube Music ranked among the most downloaded mobile entertainment apps worldwide.
As of June 2019, the most viewed YouTube channel on the online video platform belonged to Indian music label T-Series, with around than 2.84 billion views in the preceding month. T-Series also ranked first in terms of total number of subscribers, being the first channel to surpass 100 million YouTube subscribers. With music content being immensely popular on YouTube, it comes as no surprise that the the most popular YouTube video based on total global views is a music video. Despacito by Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee is currently first in terms of total views and second in reaching 1 billion YouTube streams.
