In the 26 years since Google was first founded by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the search engine and tech conglomerate has bought over 262 companies and organisations.
As you can likely guess, 262 acquisitions is a lot of money, and you’d be right.
In that time, Google has spent an average of $702 million on its acquisitions, and with the brand worth $2 Trillion as of 2021, according to the Verge, there’s likely no end in sight so its acquisition frenzy.
One of the biggest, and most notable of those acquisitions was no doubt Google’s purchase of the foremost video app, YouTube.
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All the way back in 2006, Google bought YouTube for the colossal sum of $1.6 billion dollars (£884m.)
This could be considered chump change, if you compare it to how much Google is worth today. However, 17 years ago this was a monumental amount, especially considering YouTube only just launched in February 2005.
Back then YouTube wasn’t the juggernaut of video sites like it is today. In its infancy, YouTube was full of bad-quality webcam videos of people recording song covers, and there wasn’t a way to earn a living by releasing videos on your channel.
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In those days, the site’s tag line was ‘broadcast yourself’, and there wasn’t any indication the site could make you a star, as it has since done for the likes of MrBeast, Marikiplier and Jake Paul. During the same time as the Google acquisition, the only incentive to posting videos was to share your funny videos with friends or show off your musical and bizarre talent.
Or later on, even share a COD video or two.
However, by the time Google bought YouTube Inc, the first videos of YouTube stars like Smosh, still existed on the platform, giving an indication of what was to come.
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According to Investopedia, as of March 2006, just months before Google's hefty purchase, there were only around 25 million videos on the video-sharing platform. Flashback to 17 years later, where there are reportedly 3.9 billion videos on YouTube.
Google’s purchase has most definitely been a wise decision.
Investopedia also reports that as of 2020 alone, YouTube garnered $20 billion in revenues. This is a huge step up from even 2017, where the site pulled in $8 billion, less than half of what it’s capable of today.
All those 17 years ago, YouTube was also a main competitor for Google's own 'Google Video' video hub. Yet, even in YouTube's early stages, Google failed to attract the popularity and traction that YouTube brought in.
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Instead of facing up against the competition, Google bought YouTube and helped turn it into one of the most used websites and apps of today — a prime example of the old phrase 'if you can't beat them, join them.'