By: Quartz
January 13, 2018
YouTube is a master of getting you to watch videos you didn’t know existed minutes earlier.
On an average day, people around the world watch one billion hours of video on YouTube. Most of those—70%—are recommended by YouTube’s algorithms, chief product officer Neal Mohan revealed at CES, as reported by CNET. The recommendations keep mobile users watching for more than 60 minutes at a time, on average, he said.
The recommendations are personalized, and they’re the first thing you see when you sign onto the site or YouTube app. They help you find the needle in the haystack of the millions of videos on YouTube that you actually want to watch. And they follow you around the platform, making tailored suggestions based on what you’re searching for or watching—or even where you’re watching at the time. YouTube recommends shorter videos when you’re on the mobile app, and longer videos when you’re using the TV app, for example, The Verge previously reported.