The YouTube-aissance

YouTube is back, baby

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

It took me so long to write this because I couldn’t think of a better portmanteau for “YouTube renaissance.” —Kate

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A sample of my YouTube “Home” page.

YouTube is snatching back its VidCon title sponsorship. For seven years in a row, the annual digital creator convention and the leading video-hosting platform were in lockstep. When TikTok was instead crowned the title sponsor in 2021 (which, because of COVID, ended up being 2022), it wasn’t just a shock, but also, many believed, a sign that the creator economy had well and truly shifted towards the new and shiny and—most notably—short. 

So this year’s surprise take-back is more than a bit of niche industry news. It confirms a feeling some of us have had for about a year: YouTube is back, baby.

I’ve long been a YouTube loyalist. I still follow the same creators I first stumbled upon more than 10 years ago. They now have houses and babies and are an enduring part of my life—more so than any stories or characters from the traditional entertainment world. 

Meanwhile, young people never stopped using the platform. YouTube topped a Pew Research Center survey of teen social media use in 2022—95 percent of North American 13-17-year-olds said they used it. TikTok came in second, at 67 percent. YouTube also topped a 2021 survey of U.S. adults, with 81 percent reporting that they use the app. 

But last year it seemed possible that YouTube might go the Facebook route: used by many, talked about by few.