Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim – colleagues at PayPal – came up with the idea of ​​YouTube at a party in 2005. The domain name YouTube.com was launched on February 14, 2005.

However, the video upload feature was not added until April 23, when Karim first posted the video “Me at the Zoo.” The 19-second clip shows Karim in the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo. To date, the video has been viewed more than 348 million times.

In 20 years, YouTube has become a giant beyond the imagination of its founders.

According to analyst Ross Benes, the three YouTube founders simply wanted to open YouTube as a video hosting service to review singer Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl.

Today, it is the world's largest online video service by time spent and advertising revenue.

Research firm Statista said YouTube will reach more than 2.5 billion global viewers by 2024, with YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscribers reaching 100 million.

Google – the owner of YouTube – revealed that users watch more than 1 billion hours of YouTube content every day on TV alone.

“If you go back 20 years, it would be ridiculous to think that a website full of kids' parody videos would be a threat to Disney, ABC and CBS,” Benes said.

YouTube challenges major TV networks without the cost of studios or production. Users create and upload content.

The platform hosts everything from concert clips to campaign ads to lifehacks… The sheer volume of new content makes YouTube impossible to ignore.

According to Google, more than 500 hours of YouTube video are uploaded every minute.

vbupwexn.png
YouTube founders Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. Photo: CNBC

Analysts consider Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube in 2006 a historic move, combining Google's search and advertising expertise with a video-sharing platform with avid users.

According to analyst Rob Enderle, YouTube is part of the recovery from the dot-com bubble collapse, when people realized that making money really mattered.

Google has used its advertising expertise to create a successful model, sharing revenue with content creators. The company has also improved its technology, negotiated with studios to resolve copyright disputes, and worked to tackle disturbing content like violence, nudity, and more.

The company constantly changes its algorithms to avoid offending users, advertisers and governments .

Analyst Enderle credits much of YouTube's success to late CEO Susan Wojcicki, who died last year.

Benes predicts that YouTube will surpass all US cable networks in the number of paid subscribers in two years. The platform competes with streaming services like Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime as well as short-form video services like TikTok and Instagram Reels. YouTube has launched a short-form video feature called Shorts in response.

5 facts about YouTube you may not know

When was YouTube created?

YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, employees of the PayPal payment system. The three friends' first YouTube office was located above a pizza shop in San Mateo, California, USA.

First video on YouTube?

The first video was uploaded to YouTube on April 23, 2005. It was a 19-second clip called “Me at the Zoo” by co-founder Jawed Karim.

How many videos are on YouTube?

YouTube does not disclose the number of videos on its platform, but a 2023 study by The Atlantic estimated that 14 billion public videos were available there. In 2006, YouTube had 34 million monthly users, who watched an average of 100 million videos per day.

However, after 20 years, this number has increased sharply with about 2.5 billion monthly users, watching about 5 billion YouTube videos every day.

Most viewed video on YouTube?

Music videos dominate the list of most viewed videos on YouTube. Baby Shark Dance tops the list with more than 15 billion views.

Most followed YouTuber?

YouTuber MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) owns the most subscribed channel with over 360 million subscribers. He is also considered the highest-earning creator on YouTube.

Forbes estimates he made $85 million last year. His secret is to “make videos people want to watch” rather than focus on beating the YouTube algorithm.

(Synthetic)