YouTube Announces That It Has Been An 8-Year Contest, Will Shut Down On April 1 To Determine The Winner

Bad news, guys. YouTube is shutting down.

The platform launched eight years ago, and some of us have gotten so distracted by YouTube videos that we’ve forgotten that the whole thing is actually a competition. Or, YouTube never actually mentioned that it is a competition. Either way, that competition, called YouTube, is coming to a close.

To decide who has made the best YouTube video of all time, the company has put together an expert panel of judges, complete with film critics, prolific YouTube commenters, and YouTube celebrities including Charlie from “Charlie bit my Finger” and Antoine Dodson of “Antoine Dodson News Blooper (Original).”

YouTube has over 30,000 technicians working tirelessly to narrow down all the YouTube submissions that have come in over the past eight years. The judges will then spend the next decade discussing which video should ultimately win.

Tonight, at midnight, the site will be shut down and all of its content will be permanently deleted. YouTube won’t be ressurected until 2023, at which point the only video on the site will be the winner of this competition. That said, the winner won’t be chosen for another decade, but you can watch the first 12 hours of judging live-streamed from YouTube’s LA offices tomorrow.

Talk about slow and steady, right? Will people in 2023 remember YouTube?

Luckily, of the 150,000 submissions viewed by the judges, none of them are judged by popularity. Gangnam Style has the same chance of winning as this.

The winner will get an MP3 player and a $500 creative stipend for their next creative project.

Reactions to this news should be interesting. YouTube is one of Google’s most successful and valuable properties, and it’s a global necessity in terms of easy, made-for-everyone video sharing online. However, Google has been spring cleaning lately, removing Reader and a handful of other products from its portfolio.

Perhaps this is yet another step in streamlining its offerings.

OR , April Fools apparently happens one day early in Mountain View.