The Coronavirus crisis has changed how we live and despite many switching to working from home, some are just staying at home depending on their type of jobs. YouTube has seen news views jump by a whopping 75 percent in the past few weeks compared to a similar time last year, driven by the thirst for coronavirus updates.
This is according to YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, Neal Mohan, in an interview. YouTube has been part of the services enjoying high viewership numbers driven by lockdown in towns and cities globally in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
One of the major categories, that seen spike in viewership is videos classified as news. “People are trying to consume as much information around this crisis,” said Mohan.
He did not share any specific numbers, however. Like other streaming services and social media platforms, YouTube has experienced a massive increase in viewership numbers which has led to more drastic measures like forcing everyone to watch videos in SD or 480p quality by default, although one can still change based on their preferences.
The platform’s measure to help curb misinformation on the coronavirus has involved adding an information panel at the bottom of videos before the video description, which links to health agencies. So far so good, the information panel alone has been viewed more than 10 billion times, according to Mohan.
YouTube has also axed “thousands” of videos considered to spread misinformation related to the virus.
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