Youtube History – How Jawed Karim, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley Founded The Video Sharing Site

Youtube.com is the biggest video-sharing site in the world, and it’s really huge! Did you know that at the beginning of the year 2012, more than 4 billion videos were streamed every single day? According to the popular site ranked – Alexa.com, Youtube.com is the third most popular site in the entire world… And it was started by three ordinary guys, working an ordinary job, who even didn’t have any money…

History

Jawed Karim,  Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley met each other at their full-time jobs at PayPal Inc. Once, they were at a party in San Francisco, after which they tried to share some videos taken there online. This turned out to be not an easy task, and this is how the idea for video sharing was born. The three decided to give it a try, and on the 14th of February 2005, the domain name Youtube.com was registered. Their first office was a traditional garage (what else could it be…) The first video was uploaded on April 23, it was called “Me At The Zoo, showing one of the founders – Karim in the Zoo of San Diego.

The First Video On Youtube.com :

Less than a month later, a working version of the site was launched online. The three men started looking for some financing to develop the idea further. They received it from Sequoia Capital – the company that invested in many other great online businesses like Google, Linked In, and some others – at their start. I don’t know how these guys from the fund recognized many of the biggest diamonds online, but this was going to be their next home run. The starting capital they provided was $11,5 million.

Loaded heavily with money, Youtube started growing really fast. In the middle of 2006 (just a year after its debut online), the site had become the fastest-growing online business on the Web. It was ranked as the 5th most popular site in the world by Alexa.com. People from all around the world were uploading thousands of videos reaching 65 000 every single day. The monthly visitors quickly grew to more than 20 million and the site already had over 100 million uploaded clips. Youtube quickly became the leader in its sector, the company had conquered a major part of the video-sharing markets in many countries in the world. This huge expansion didn’t stay unnoticed by some of the online giants…

Google Buys Youtube

On the 9th of October, 2006, Google announced that they were buying Youtube for $1.65 billion. This was their biggest acquisition so far. The three young entrepreneurs, who founded the video site had made more than a billion in about a year. No other Internet company has ever grown so fast to over a billion dollars.

By the middle of 2008, Youtube had conquered more than 37% of the global online video market. Its closest competitor had only around 4% market share. Despite its popularity, the site had never made any profit since its creation. Hosting and displaying such large amounts of videos turned out to be an expensive activity. No official figures have been released, but for 2009, the revenue of Youtube was $240 million and the expenses were around $740 million.

Interesting facts about Youtube

1. YouTube was originally meant to be a dating site called “Tune In, Hook Up”. It was created by three former PayPal employees–Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim – in February 2005.

2. YouTube is owned by Google, which purchased it for $1.65 billion in October 2006.

3 Susan Wojcicki is the current CEO of YouTube and the first female to lead a major tech company in US history.

4 The first ever video uploaded was titled “Me at the zoo” and was filmed by co-founder Jawed Karim at San Diego Zoo in April 2005.

5 The most viewed video on YouTube is “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi ft Daddy Yankee, with over 7 billion views as of June 2021.

6 The second most viewed video is “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa ft Charlie Puth, with over 5 billion views as of June 2021.

7 The highest-earned video on YouTube is “Gangnam Style” by Psy with $8 million from ads in the 12 months following its release in July 2012; it was also the first video to reach one billion views (in December 2012).

8 Jake Paul is currently YouTube’s highest earning content creator ($11 million), who has over 20 million followers and specializes in prank videos, vlogs, and music videos.”

9 As per July 2019 statistics, 80% of YouTube’s views come from outside of US and Canada; 2017 stats also revealed 62% of views come from mobile phones as opposed to desktop computers.”

10 YouTube has millions of channels from around the world with diverse content such as gaming, music, news, sports, education, beauty & fashion, and lifestyle genres; 86% of internet users aged 13-18 watch online videos monthly and this translates into about 20 million people watching content on Youtube alone each month.”

Watch the Story of Youtube on Youtube

Youtube.com Today

YouTube has become an integral part of modern life. Over the past decade, the site has evolved from a simple website where users can upload videos to a streaming video platform with original content and a massive library of videos from content creators around the world. As of 2020, YouTube is the world’s second most-visited website according to Alexa.

YouTube has enabled people to gain an international following overnight by creating new channels and uploading videos related to their areas of expertise. With its powerful algorithm, YouTube helps users find what they are looking for by recommending relevant videos and channels when browsing the platform. This helps smaller content creators get discovered and grow their audience through organic reach.

Today, YouTube remains one of the most popular ways for people to consume entertainment and educational content at home. With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is where millions of viewers go every day to watch their favorite creators and discover new talent. YouTube also provides an opportunity for authoritative figures in different industries to establish themselves as thought leaders with videos and live streams that spread valuable lessons, discuss topics of interest, and drive conversations within different communities.

The site is also widely used by businesses as a marketing tool to get their products or services out there. Many companies create ad campaigns on YouTube or partner up with influencers who have become widely successful on the platform. This type of marketing has been successful since it brings in more viewers who may not have seen ads on other channels.

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