The BBC adopted a user-generated content platform for its websites in 2005, and TIME Magazine named "You" as the Person of the Year in 2006, referring to the rise in the production of UGC on Web 2.0 platforms.

Web 2.0 (also known as Participative (or Participatory) and Social Web ) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatible with other products, systems, and devices) for end users.

The advent of user-generated content marked a shift among media organizations from creating online content to providing facilities for amateurs to publish their own content.

Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist.

User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text and audio, that have been posted by users on online platforms such as social media and wikis.

User-generated Internet video was popularized by YouTube, an online video platform founded by Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim and Steve Chen in April 2005.

It offers a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos.

Other social media platforms are also dominant at the regional level such as: Twitter in Japan, Naver in the Republic of Korea, Instagram (owned by Facebook) and LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft) in Africa, VKontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki in Russia and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, WeChat and QQ in China.

To fill this void, Naver became an early pioneer in user-generated content through the creation of the 'Knowledge iN (Hangul: 네이버 지식인)' service in 2002.

With the growth of the World Wide Web the focus moved to websites, several of which were based on user-generated content, including Wikipedia (2001) and Flickr (2004).

Website content can be largely provided by a publisher, or interactively where users contribute content or the content depends upon the users or their actions.

In the wake of the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the Buncefield oil depot fire, the team was made permanent and was expanded, reflecting the arrival in the mainstream of the citizen journalist.

Citizen journalism is a specific form of both citizen media and user-generated content (UGC).

User-generated Internet video was popularized by YouTube, an online video platform founded by Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim and Steve Chen in April 2005.

Online video platforms can use a software as a service (SaaS) business model, a do it yourself (DIY) model or user-generated content (UGC) model.

CNN also invested in developed a similar user generated content platform, known as iReport. There are several other examples of news channels implementing similar protocols, especially in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe or terrorist attack.

The widespread growth of blogs, social media and user-generated content have influenced the site, and blogs in particular have focused CNN's previously scattershot online offerings, most noticeably in the development and launch of CNN Pipeline in late 2005.

There are many types of user-generated content: Internet forums, where people talk about different topics; blogs are services where users can post about many topics, product reviews on a supplier website or in social media; wikis such as Wikipedia and Wikia allow users, sometimes including anonymous users, to edit the content.

From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content.

Another type of user-generated content are social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, or VK, where users interact with other people via chatting, writing messages, posting images or links, and sharing content.

Entertainment social media and information sharing websites include Reddit, 9Gag, 4chan, Upworthy, Newgrounds, Inbound.org, and Distractify.

Reddit is a website comprising user-generated content—including photos, videos, links, and text-based posts—and discussions of this content in what is essentially a bulletin board system.

Entertainment social media and information sharing websites include Reddit, 9Gag, 4chan, Upworthy, Newgrounds, Inbound.org, and Distractify.

9GAG is a Hong Kong-based online platform and social media website, which allows its users to upload and share "user-generated content" or other content from external social media websites.

TripAdvisor includes reviews and recommendations by travelers about hotels, restaurants, and activities.

TripAdvisor was an early adopter of user-generated content.

Entertainment social media and information sharing websites include Reddit, 9Gag, 4chan, Upworthy, Newgrounds, Inbound.org, and Distractify.

User-generated content can be uploaded and categorized into either one of the site's four web portals: Games, Movies, Audio, and Art.

With the growth of the World Wide Web the focus moved to websites, several of which were based on user-generated content, including Wikipedia (2001) and Flickr (2004). There are many types of user-generated content: Internet forums, where people talk about different topics; blogs are services where users can post about many topics, product reviews on a supplier website or in social media; wikis such as Wikipedia and Wikia allow users, sometimes including anonymous users, to edit the content. In January 2017, Wikipedia had more than 43 million articles, almost twice as many as in January 2012.

Nicholas Carr wrote a 2005 essay, "The amorality of Web 2.0", that criticized websites with user-generated content, like Wikipedia, for possibly leading to professional (and, in his view, superior) content producers' going out of business, because "free trumps quality all the time".

Because of the dependency of social interaction, these sites fall into the category of social commerce.

in November 2005 which describes a set of online collaborative shopping tools such as shared pick lists, user ratings and other user-generated content-sharing of online product information and advice.

With the growth of the World Wide Web the focus moved to websites, several of which were based on user-generated content, including Wikipedia (2001) and Flickr (2004).

Video games can have fan-made content in the form of mods, fan patches, fan translations or server emulators.

A more general and internet focused form of "fan work" is user-generated content, which became popular with the Web 2.0, often also a form of virtual volunteering.

User-generated content was featured in Time magazine's 2006 Person of the Year, in which the person of the year was "you", meaning all of the people who contribute to user generated media, including YouTube, Wikipedia and MySpace.

In the 1990s several electronic bulletin board systems were based on user-generated content.

Some bargain hunting websites feature user-generated content, such as eBay, Dealsplus, and FatWallet which allow users to post, discuss, and control which bargains get promoted within the community.

It combines aspects of an online coupon site and user-generated content driven deal focused sites.

Video games can have fan-made content in the form of mods, fan patches, fan translations or server emulators.

The Internet provides an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute user created content like mods, an aspect commonly known as Web 2.0.

A few massively multiplayer online role-playing games including Star Trek Online and EverQuest 2 have UGC systems integrated into the game itself.

Increased amounts of "player-created content" is another trend.

Local laws also vary on who is liable for any resulting copyright infringements caused by user-generated content; in the United States, the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA)—a portion of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), dictates safe harbor provisions for "online service providers" as defined under the act, which grants immunity from secondary liability for the copyright-infringing actions of their users, as long as they promptly remove access to allegedly infringing materials upon the receipt of a notice from a copyright holder or registered agent, and they do not have actual knowledge that their service is being used for infringing activities.

In 2007 numerous US based online service providers hosting user generated content implemented content recognition technology to screen uploaded content for possible copyright infringement.