There are now more than 1 billion unique users monthly for the video sharing site YouTube. That means 50 per cent of people who are on the Internet visits YouTube.

It would almost be equal to the 1 billion Facebook members which FB breached in the last quarter of 2012 or about 10 Super Bowl audiences. By YouTube watchers numbers, if the popular portal were a country, it would be the third largest after China and India which both have10-digit headcounts.

In a blog post, YouTube explained the phenomenal growth experienced by the site to the change in the way people consume content. "For the first time, an entire generation has grown up watching content on their own terms. This generation is defined by the Internet, mobile and social - consuming content and where they want.

The blog post noted that Nielsen called the group of YouTube babies as Generation C because they thrive on four C's: connection, creation, community and curation. It said that generation could influence $500 billion of spending a year in the U.S., although they could also be hard to reach as an audience for brand.

YouTube was launched in 2005 and purchased in 2006 by Google for $1.76 billion when the portal users reached 50 million users worldwide.

One of the biggest contributor to YouTube's new milestone is South Korean singer Psy, who was one of several famous celebrities now who crafted careers out of their YouTube debut. This list includes Canadian pop star Justin Bieber and Filipina singer Charice Pempengco.

Psy's Gangnam Style official video continues to enjoy being the number one video on YouTube with almost 1.5 billion hits.

It is followed by Justin's Baby with 841 million hits. New entrants to the top 10 include Charlie Bit My Finger Again with about 518 million hits at third place.

On fourth spot in Adele with her Someone Like You performance at the BRIT Awards 2011 with 143 million hits.

Both Psy and Bieber have two top 10 hits each. Psy's Waveya with the Korean Dance Team is on fifth place with 100 million views and Bieber's U Smile is on eighth spot with 75 million hits.

In between them on sixth place is Sesame's Street's Elmo's Song with 88 million hits.

It seems baby videos are very popular since on the ninth and tenth spots with 50 and 43 million hits each are Numa Numa and The Gummy Bear Song.

RELATED STORIES