Ahh YouTube … It all started with a man uploading a video of his trip to the zoo.

11 years later the purpose of the site is still very much the same, a platform to share silly videos online. Only instead of the video only being watched by your mum and dad it is being shared to billions of people from all over the world!

Now ranked as the second most popular website in the world YouTube has transformed itself from the little video sharing site into a global phenomenon, with content creators and companies using the platform to advertise themselves and their businesses to make millions!

So taking all this into account how could it be fathomable that such a successful website could being slowly dying? Well realistically it’s not, if anything its still growing at a rather large rate.

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However what the owners of YouTube are doing is running a very fine line with some of their biggest assets which could potential be their downfall, and in fact they have been doing so for a few years now. To pinpoint the moment YouTube started taking these risks we would have to go back to 2013 and the introduction of Google+.

Google+ was or at least intended to be the ‘next big thing’ in social media rivalling Facebook in the battle for the best social networking service on the internet. To put it simply, it flopped … big time! But after investing so much money into the service Google (Who purchased YouTube back in 2006) decided to force the system upon their other audiences. Changes were made to YouTube’s commenting system meaning to make a comment on a video you would have to link your account up to Google+. It’s safe to say the critical response to this was rather heated and can best be summed up by this video by YouTuber ‘Emma Blackery’

YouTube users rejected Google+ and the new conditions were soon enough removed from the site, though the community did not forget the sneaky tactics Google tried to pull. They still haven’t given up and Google+ is still going to this day … let it die google, let it die!

So fast forward to 2016 and YouTube are back at it again annoying their users. Most recently with the changes in community guidelines & restrictions for content producers. YouTube massively relies on the big channels to continue to produce consistently quality content to keep traffic coming in. If the likes of PewDiePie with his 48 million subscribers were to disappear of the face of the site it could have severe consequences. Therefore when YouTube started disabling several videos for monetisation (The method in which a video makes money from ad revenue) for seemingly no reason the whole community went up in uproar!

YouTube released a statement to say that several guidelines were being clamped down on such as the use of excessive language and videos on controversial topics. Several YouTubers including popular fan choice ‘Phillip DeFranco’ responded to this to say they should be allowed to produce their content in whatever style they like.

So will these new guidelines be the end of everyones favourite video sharing site? No, as mentioned before YouTube are far too huge to be heavily hit by something as small as a few rebelling channels. However if they continue to test the patience of all its users they could potential shoot themselves in the foot. With the likes of Facebook and Vimeo ready to pounce on YouTube’s mistakes we could all be switching to a new website soon.