Some 20 years after the posting of the first video to the service, the 19-second “Me at the Zoo,” YouTube is the video platform to beat.

Already having conquered the mobile video space – see last year’s Comscore Year in Review report that placed the platform at the top of the mobile app heap for the 18-34 demo – it’s becoming an increasingly important player in living room viewing via broader use of connected TV.

According to a survey conducted by market research firm Kantar, if viewers in Canada could choose only one service to watch for an entire year, the choice would be YouTube. Of course, users aren’t just watching the videos that rack up views in the millions – they’re uploading them too. According to the company, more than 20 million videos are uploaded daily to the platform, with uploaders ranging from entry-level content creators to major mediacos.

And all that homegrown content creation isn’t just great for YouTube’s library – it’s good for the economy too. According to the platform’s first-party data, YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed more than $1.8 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2023, and supported more than 30,000 full-time equivalent jobs. That ecosystem is supported to some degree by YouTube’s Partner Program, which, according to the company, paid out more than $70 billion to creators, artists, and media companies between 2021-23.

As the Google-owned platform celebrates its first 20 years, Andrew Peterson (pictured), head of YouTube Canada, took some time to share his take on YouTube’s Canadian creator space, and how traditional mediacos can use its reach to their advantage.

Playback: How are producers, distributors and broadcasters using YouTube to their advantage?

Andrew Peterson: YouTube is a great front door to discover new content. Of all of the viewers in Canada that watch TV and film content on YouTube, 49% use YouTube to decide [on] new shows and 31% will subscribe to the SVOD or OTT service to watch the full episode.

We’re also a great place to engage fans with content that goes deeper on the show, between episodes. Then, once content [isn’t] driving as much value through earlier distribution windows, YouTube is already playing an incredible role to catch up on that catalogue. Even if YouTube is not the first place where full episodes and movies are being [seen], we are a great place as part of the overall life cycle and to make sure the great Canadian content doesn’t get lost when it disappears from an SVOD service.

Have you seen distinctly Canadian content from creators connect with international audiences, as we see in traditional media on occasion?

Over 90% of Canadian creators’ watch time on YouTube actually comes from outside of Canada. I look at someone like J. J. McCullough [998,000 subscribers]. J. J. is distinctly Canadian in his view. If you’ve got a story to tell, it is a level playing field, globally, for you to build an audience and a business on the platform. Just put the audience and the story at the centre of what you do, and you’ve got a chance to soar.

How have platforms like YouTube and digital creators shifted the industry over the years?

I think there’s two parts to the question. The first is what I would say is an industry trend.

Viewers now expect to live in a multi-format world. If you’re on the way to work on the TTC, you want to watch some great shorts content on YouTube and be part of the 70 billion views a day. You might get to work and you’re on your desktop and want to catch up on the highlights from the Leafs game.

YouTube is now the number one platform in Canada for the consumption of podcasts [the company recently reported having more than one billion podcast viewers per month]. So, you might tune in to your favourite news podcast on the way home.

And, when you do get home, Canadians are putting YouTube on the big screen. Every month, over 17 million Canadians watch YouTube on the big screen.

To the second part of the question around creators, because of the YouTube Partner Program creators are able to invest in themselves. But, what we are increasingly seeing is creators becoming the new startups of Hollywood North.

You look at someone like Mia Plays [711,000 subscribers] in Vancouver, who has just launched a production studio. You look at Linus Tech Tips [16.4 million subscribers] in Surrey. B.C., who employs over 100 people for his business.

These are not only creators, they are creative entrepreneurs that have writing rooms, producers and business teams that are creating really sophisticated, next-generation media businesses here on YouTube. They can do that effectively from anywhere in the country. You no longer have to move to L.A. to be really successful perceptually in the screen industry. You can build these businesses at home and thrive.

With files from Barry Walsh

This story originally appeared in Playback’s Spring 2025 issue

Image courtesy of YouTube Canada