Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, the Webby Awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. The IADAS is comprised of Internet industry experts, including Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker, and 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki. This year’s event, WFH: Webbys From Home, was hosted by acclaimed actor and comedian Patton Oswalt.
“We are grateful to be able to tell these stories to audiences all over the world. To be recognized for our work by our fans and our peers will motivate us to be even better,” said Steve Hulford, CEO and co-founder of Underknown, when asked about What If’s victory over accomplished finalists BBC, Wired, PBS, and NASA.
The What If show makes complex topics accessible by using a hypothetical question as an entry point to discover the sciences, with each episode taking viewers on an epic exploration of possibilities. What If has amassed over 430 episodes, 20 million followers, and almost four billion watched minutes in just two years. Popular videos include: What If We Dumped our Trash into Volcanoes?, What If You Were Swallowed by a Whale? and What If You Fell Into Jupiter?
“A huge thank you to our community on social media for asking, voting on, and debating over 200,000 what-if questions. Audience participation is a big part of the series’ success and I would like to thank every single person for their contribution,” said Underknown co-founder Raphael Faeh.
The connection between the fans and the production team was echoed by the voice of What If, Peter Schmiedchen. “Our video production team really understands what viewers want. We go to great lengths to make sure that our stories are not simply inquisitive and informative, but also fun and entertaining.”
Episodes can be streamed for free on YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and on the website whatifshow.com.
What If is a web series published daily and is consistently ranked by Tubular Labs as the most-watched science and technology video channel in the world on social media (YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram combined).
