Sharp and engaging - The Times

The intricately-reported, elegantly-crafted story of the website that came out of nowhere, to change everything. - Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound

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Now, for the first time ever, discover the story of YouTube: how it started, how it works, and how it came to control our culture.

It has entertained us with cat videos, flash mobs, gaming streams and Charlie Bit My Finger.
It has educated us with makeup tutorials, DIYs and delicious recipes.
It has changed us with advertising, extremism and political propaganda.

Since its foundation in 2005, YouTube has existed on a pendulum. Its emergence established a valuable space for unique and important voices to share themselves and their views, and made global stars out of everyday people such as PewDiePie, Shane Dawson and Ryan Higa. It invented the attention economy we all live in today, forever changing how people are entertained, informed and paid online.

At the same time, countless extremists have found a home on YouTube, using it to spread misinformation and propaganda - sometimes with real-world life-and-death consequences. The site is massively profitable for its parent company, Google (Alphabet), which has aggressively grown it into a ruthless advertising conglomerate with little regard for its impact beyond the bottom line.

In Like Comment Subscribe, Bloomberg tech journalist Mark Bergen delivers the definitive, page-turning account of YouTube. Exploring the stories of the people behind the platform, he tells the story of a technical marvel that upended traditional media, created stars of everyday people, and ultimately changed the world through untamed freedom of speech.