YouTube turns eight, reveals over 100 hours of video being uploaded every minute

YouTube has revealed that over 100 hours of video are now being uploaded to the world's most popular video-sharing site.

The company shared this information via a blog post celebrating eight years of existence of the web site that started in May 2005, and was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in November 2006.

Today, more than 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. That's more than four days of video uploaded each minute! Every month, more than 1 billion people come to YouTube to access news, answer questions and have a little fun. That's almost one out of every two people on the Internet.

The impressive stat comes barely a couple of months after YouTube revealed it had reached one billion monthly users. "If YouTube were a country, we'd be the third largest in the world after China and India," the company had said at the time.

More recently, YouTube had launched paid channels, in a move that puts it in direct competition with services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. The company released a list of some 50 channels which will be part of the program. Subscription rates go as high as $7.99 per month.

"Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates," a YouTube blog post said.

The new paid channels include Acorn TV, which offers British TV programs at $4.99 per month; National Geographic Kids, at $2.99 a month or $30 a year; and PrimeZone Sports, at $2.99 per month. Other channels offer programming from UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), Comedy.tv, and iAmplify Fitness. A children's channel from Sesame Street is coming soon.