10. Youtube
Ranking last, but not least, in our top, with 81,371,236 people following the page and another 156,457 people talking about it, YouTube is a website where users can upload and watch audio and video files. YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former employees of PayPal. Service based in San Bruno, California, uses the technology Adobe Flash Player (HTML5 in 2012) to expose a wide range of videos created by the users, including excerpts from television programs or movies. YouTube is the recent phenomenon called Web 2.0.
YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, all three having been employees of PayPal. Prior to working at PayPal, Hurley studied at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Chen and Karim studied together at the University of Illinois in the town of Urbana, Champaign County, Illinois. The “YouTube.com” domain was activated on 15 February 2005 and the website was created with this address over the coming months. The creators showed a first preview of the site to the public in May 2005, five months before the official launch.
In October 2006 Google announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire the company for $1.65 billion. The deal was concluded on 13 November 2006.
Unregistered users can view all the videos on the site, while registered users can upload extra videos on YouTube which can provide comments and notes to the videos. Some videos are available only to users 18 and over. Uploading videos containing insults, harassment, or advertising material that encourages crime is strictly prohibited. Related videos, determined by title and tags, appear onscreen at the bottom right. Since the second year of YouTube’s features have been added to help users post ‘video responses’ and subscribe to the new video users prefer.
By launching the site in 2005, there were only a few simple methods for uploading videos on the internet by inexperienced users. With its easy to use interface, YouTube made it possible for anyone who can use a computer to also upload a video that after only a few minutes can be seen by millions of people. The wide variety of topics covered by YouTube has turned video transmission in one of the most important applications of the Internet.
Since its creation YouTube has been blocked in various countries such as Tunisia, Thailand (then blocking was canceled) and Iran. Some videos were banned in Turkey from October 1, 2007, but the restriction was lifted after two days. On January 22, 2008 Turkey banned the use of YouTube again, but the ban was lifted again after three days. YouTube has been blocked in Turkey again between May and August 2008 after controversy over videos showing insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Some pages are also banned in the UAE.
9. Rihanna
Rihanna is an American singer, who became famous with songs like Unfaithful and Umbrella. Winner of dozens of awards, Rihanna is the idol of millions of adolescence, fashion icon, philanthropist and ambassador of many companies in the world. She was nominated for three Grammy Awards and has a total of 81.591.978 likes, with 193.756 people talking about her.
Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20, 1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados, in a modest family. Her mother is native to Guyana and her father to Barbados, with an Irish descent. She has two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty and started playing when she was only 7. His childhood was affected by his father’s addiction to cocaine and by her parent’s divorce, when she was only 14 years old. In 2003, producer Evan Rogers heard Rihanna singing while he was on a vacation in Barbados. The effect was great and, at 16, Rihanna moved to the United States, in the home of the Roger family. Together, they made a demo tape, where Rihanna interprets various covers, but it took nearly one year to record because Rihanna had to continue her studies. The demo was sent to Def Jam, a company owned by Jay-Z, who immediately signed a contract with Rihanna.
Her debut single, Pon de Replay, has seen the spotlight in 2005 and went straight to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her first album, Music of the Sun, sold 69.000 copies in its first weekend and over 2 million copies worldwide and received a gold certificate from the Recording Industry Association of America. In 2008, Rihanna is nominated for six Grammys and won her first statuette for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. She then also starts the second world tour, “The Good Girl Gine Bad Tour”, when the singer receives the title “Diva of the Year”. In 2009, Rihanna’s Grammy Awards show is canceled and her then boyfriend, Chris Brown, arrested for assault and criminal intent. There were photos obtained as evidence for the police in which she appears beaten, Chris Brown admitting the offense and receiving 5 years in prison with release, and the prohibition of approaching the artist.
The artist fights for many causes, such as people with HIV or children affected by poverty. The star is the image of numerous companies, including various fashion houses. She launched her own fragrance, appeared in thousands of glamor magazines and her tattoos (13) attracted international media’s attention. Rihanna’s artist motto is: “Never a failure, always a lesson”.
8. Real Madrid CF
With 84.354.054 likes and 2.633.654 people talking about it on Facebook, Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, better known as Real Madrid or Real for short is a professional football club in Madrid, Spain, playing in Primera División. It is the most successful team in the Spanish football and was named by FIFA as the “Best club of the twentieth century” after winning a record 32 titles La Liga, 19 cups of Spain, a record 10 titles UEFA Champions League/European Cup and two UEFA Cups. Real is one of the founding members of FIFA and the late group of the elite European clubs G-14, as well as its artificial, European Club Association.
Real Madrid is the richest club in the world in terms of revenue, with annual revenues of more than €513 million and also the most expensive club in the world with a value of about €2.4 billion. Founded in 1902, Real Madrid is one of three teams in Spain that have never played in the lower leagues, the other two being Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona. Real Madrid has many long-standing rivalries, most notably “El Clásico” with FC Barcelona and “El Derbi Madrileño” with Atletico Madrid.
The club emerged as a major force in the Spanish fotball, both in the European in the 1950s and in the 1980s, the club had one of the best teams in Spain and Europe (known as La Quinta del Buitre), winning two UEFA Cups, five Spanish championships in a row, a cup and three Supercups. The team plays in a completely white equipment, hence the nickname Los Blancos (The Whites). Its logo was changed several times by the attempts to modernize; The current logo is a modified version of the 1920 stadium where the team will be competing on home matches on Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, where the team plays in 1947. Its capacity is of 85.454 spectators. Unlike most European football clubs, Real Madrid owned and operated the club since its inception. Also, the club has a reserve team, Real Madrid Castilla, and a successful basketball team, Real Madrid Baloncesto.
7. FC Barcelona
The representative team of Barcelona, Català FC, was founded near the sport gym Tolosa, by Jaume Vila, with the stated aim to promote the sport locally. The club refused integrating young football enthusiast Hans Gamper, because he was not Catalan. Gamper’s reaction to this refusal was the creation FC Barcelona on 29 November 1899, local players, together with a group of young Englishmen and a few Canadians.
Beside the football club, other sports such as basketball, handball, hockey, rugby, baseball, figure skating, volleyball, futsal, cycling, ice hockey were included. Fútbol Club Barcelona, Barcelona or Barça for short, is a football club in Barcelona, Spain, playing in Primera División, with a total of 86.853.880 fans and 2.008.539 people talking about it on Facebook. Founded in 1899, the club has become a symbol of the Catalan culture and the Catalan nationalism, their motto being therefore: “Barça is more than a club” (Catalan: FC Barcelona – Més que un club).
Barcelona’s official anthem is the “Cant del Barça” written by Jaume Picas and Josep Maria Espinas. Unlike many other clubs, the supporters own and lead Barcelona. It is the second richest football club in terms of revenue, with an annual turnover of €450 million. FC Barcelona has a long rivalry with Real Madrid, matches between the two teams being known as “El Clásico”.
On 22 October 1899 Gamper made an advertisement in Los Deports, declaring their wish to form a football club. The positive response received to set up a meeting at the Gimanasio Sole on November 29. Eleven players attended: Gualteri Wild, Lluís d’Osso, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunz Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons and William Parsons. Thus was born the football club. Several other Spanish football clubs, most notably Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao also had British founders, from which they adopted their English-style names.
Legend says that Gamper chose the legendary club colors, Azulgrana, after FC Basel, his former club. But other Swiss teams for which Gamper played, like the canton of Zurich and his native tailoring Commercial School in Crosby, Merseyside, credited and claimed to be the ones that got him inspired.