Video uploader YouTube is celebrating its 8th birthday. Since the launch in 2005 the video-sharing website has gone global with 1 billion unique users every month.

YouTube reckons nearly 1 in every 2 people on the internet now pays a visit. The site says that it now has more than a million creators from over 30 countries around the world earning money from their videos.

It adds that it has more than a million advertisers using Google ad platforms - the majority of which are small businesses.

Some interesting facts and figures about the site are below:

• Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
• 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
• YouTube is localized in 53 countries and across 61 languages
• 25% of global YouTube views come from mobile devices
• People watch one billion views a day on YouTube mobile
• YouTube is available on hundreds of millions of devices
• Traffic from mobile devices tripled in 2011

Back in 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth. As well as this millions of subscriptions happen each day. These allow people to connect with someone they are interested in and keep up with their activity on the site.

The website has seen it being used as a platform for several outlets, including breaking news stories such as the Hudson River plane crash back in 2009:

But it seems there is no contest for the top-watched YouTube videos - music. With over 1,551,973,277 views in only 9 months, here is the most-watched video:

The site has compiled its highlights from last year: