If you want to lookout man a video, chances are you go to YouTube. Information technology hosts movies, trailers, live streams, vlogs, music videos, news, and much more. YouTube is synonymous with video watching and sharing and now pulls in billions of revenue every twelvemonth for owners Google.

Of course, none of its three creators could have quite predicted the success that YouTube has seen. So, let's explore YouTube's roots and check out the first YouTube video.

When Did YouTube Start?

YouTube was founded by Steve Chen, Republic of chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim on February xiv, 2005. The trio met while working at PayPal, a company which found success afterward existence bought past eBay.

Supposedly, the idea for YouTube as a video sharing service came from the Super Bowl controversy when Janet Jackson's breast was exposed, and Karim couldn't detect the clip online.

According to Hurley and Chen, the original concept of YouTube was as an online dating service. They took to Craigslist to inquire women to upload videos of themselves to YouTube in exchange for $100. They struggled to get enough videos, so pivoted YouTube to accept any videos.

In May 2005, the site launched in a public beta. By Nov, a Nike advertizing starring Ronaldinho became the offset to claim one million views. In December 2005, the site officially launched, at which point information technology had viii one thousand thousand daily views. By July 2006, more than 65,000 videos were uploaded every day.

YouTube wasn't the starting time video sharing website (Vimeo launched in Nov 2004), only information technology was certainly the showtime to popularize like shooting fish in a barrel uploading and sharing. Its popularity was boosted through viral comedy videos, like that from homegrown talent Smosh and unauthorized uploads of Saturday Nighttime Live's The Lonely Island.

In November 2006, Google caused YouTube for $one.65 billion in YouTube stock. From there, YouTube has changed rapidly: multiple new interfaces, support for higher resolution videos, changes in management, pushing monetization, and more.

That said, in some ways the YouTube of today is much like the 1 in 2005. The core construction remains unchanged. Anyone can upload videos to their channel, comment on other videos, and share them with friends.

What Was the First YouTube Video?

The showtime YouTube video is "Me at the zoo" and was uploaded on April 23, 2005 by co-founder Jared Karim when he was 25 years old. The video runs for less than xx seconds and features Karim in front end of some elephants at the San Diego Zoo, commenting on how cool their long trunks are.

The video has over 218 meg views and remains the only video on Karim'south YouTube aqueduct.

"Me at the zoo" is zip special—it'southward low resolution and states the obvious about elephants—but it set up the tone for the bootleg and inconsequential uploads that defined the early years of YouTube. It was a time when amateurs used the platform to express themselves, simply fueled past a desire to create and share, rather than brands or influencers seeking financial reward.

Karim has updated the video's description a couple of times over the years to call out Google. In November 2013, the description read "I can't comment here anymore, since i don't want a Google+ account," in response to YouTube'southward integration with Google+. Similarly, in November 2021, it explained why YouTube hiding the dislike count is bad.

What's Side by side for YouTube?

At present, billions of people utilise YouTube every solar day, with no sign of that slowing down. Considering no video sharing platform has ever come close to touching YouTube'due south dominance, it's probable to stay that style for a long time.

However, other video sites go on to exist (Vimeo included!), of which some people consider to be superior to YouTube thanks to their relaxed content restrictions or focus on community.

12 Video Sites That Are Better Than YouTube

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Nigh The Author

Joe Keeley (882 Manufactures Published)

Joe was built-in with a keyboard in his easily and immediately started writing about technology. He has a BA (Hons) in Business and is at present a full-fourth dimension freelance author who enjoys making tech simple for everyone.

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