This Month, 18 Years Ago, YouTube Was Founded. The $300 Billion Company Started With "Me at the Zoo"

February 14th, 2023, will mark the 18-year anniversary of YouTube.

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Founded in 2005, by a group of web developers: Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, the $300-billion company is now owned by Google and the second-most visited website in the world -- behind only Google Search, itself.

Through its adolescent and teenage years, the California-based company has gone on to provide entertainment to billions of viewers -- not to mention giving millions more a career path.

According to wyzowl.com, 2500 new videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, amounting to 183 hours of new content. And, the social media powerhouse has also made more millionaires than any other platform, paying its creators $15.9 billion, in 2021.

Although it's hard to imagine life without YouTube now, it was once just another startup walking on shaky legs.

On April 23rd, 2005, Jawed Karim, uploaded the first ever video to YouTube, titled “Me at the Zoo.” The script of the entire 18-second clip, filmed at the San Diego Zoo, goes as follows:

“Alright, so here we are in front of the elephants. The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks, and that’s cool… and that’s pretty much all there is to say.”

From there, the limits of the platform were tested and pushed.

Creators like MrBeast have studied the algorithm meticulously to put on Super Bowl-sized events, with every new video. He has since gone on to create a brand worth billions... yes, billions.

Although Jawed's video is nowhere near the quality of some of the content produced now, as YouTube has begun offering feature-length films and series to their Premium subscribers (most recently giving birth to the Cobra Kai series, which has now been adopted by Netflix), it's a cultural relic of the platform.

But, even with 255 million views, Jawed's video is considered only semi-viral by today's standards. Contemporary classics like Gangnam Style set a new standard for true virality -- being the first video to ever reach 1 billion views. Since then, numerous videos have reached the billion mark.

And today, in 2023, the most-viewed video is one you've likely heard at least once (or 100 times if you have kids) -- Baby Shark, with 12 billion views.

Over the last 18 years, since its inception on Valentine's Day, YouTube has been a labour of love for its creators, owners, and partners alike. And as it enters adulthood, it's exciting to see what's next.

When asked about the serendipitous nature of YouTube being founded on Valentine's day, Jawed had this to say:

"That's one of those things about being a computer science major: Valentine's Day is just another day."

Learn more bout YouTube's history, and its top creators, here.

Hey, I'm Hudson! I write about social media, marketing, and modern entrepreneurship. Hit follow for more stories like this one.