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The vast majority of YouTube users hit the site for how-to videos

Trevor Mogg
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Surely one of the greatest things about YouTube is its vast collection of videos that show us how to do things.

It’s really rather heartwarming that so many regular folks have taken precious time out of their day to fire up a camera and offer detailed guides on how to do just about anything you care to think of — from making a cup of coffee float in the air to more useful stuff like how to fix a squeaky door or how to learn faster.

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The genre has even inspired a slew of spoof channels such as this one that includes an offbeat take on how to replace a door knob with a hot dog.

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And while cat videos and music content are still wildly popular on the Google-owned streaming service, a recent study has revealed that the vast majority of YouTube users seek out how-to videos on the site, among other content.

Pew Research surveyed 4,600 American adults in May and June 2018 and published the results this week.

Among its wide-ranging findings, Pew discovered that 87 percent of YouTube users find the streaming site useful for getting information on how to do things.

The figures vary according to age group, with a higher percentage of users aged between 18 and 29 searching how-to videos on the site compared to those aged 65 and older.

It’s not clear how many how-to videos are on YouTube today, though just a couple of years ago the company put the figure at 135 million.

Keen to build on the site’s success at attracting users interested in learning stuff, YouTube announced in October that it plans to spend $20 million on educational content through deals with independent creators and professional producers.

As part of the announcement, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said the company was “committed to empowering both the creators who want to share their knowledge with the world and the users who come to our platform to learn — from home improvements to the basics of physics to grammar lessons.”

Popular how-to searches on the video-streaming site today include several that have been ranking highly for years, among them how to tie a tie, how to solve the Rubik’s Cube, and how to make a cake.

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Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
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