When you watch a video on YouTube, it's easy to take the platform for granted. It's become an integral part of our lives where we spend time watching videos, searching for various topics, be it a recipe, a song, a tutorial, or a review. However, rewind 20 years, and the existence of a platform like YouTube was far from obvious. The fact that we now consider YouTube a part of our daily routine is a testament to how it has evolved and seamlessly integrated into our lives.
So, how did it all begin? Recently, YouTube's official Instagram account posted a photo of the very first video ever uploaded to the website!
This is Jawed Karim's initial post on YouTube, and the title reads, "If you think about it, it all started with a Short #YouTubeFactFest."
Many may not know, but Jawed Karim was one of the three co-founders of YouTube, along with Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. The trio, all former colleagues at PayPal, developed the concept of YouTube.
The video from the San Diego Zoo's elephant exhibit, which was uploaded 17 years ago, shows Mr. Karim standing in front of the enclosure. It is indeed the very first video ever uploaded to the platform, and YouTube has nostalgically shared it, taking everyone back to its early days.
The voiceover in the video features Mr. Karim saying, "All right, 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."
Mr. Karim posted this video on his verified YouTube channel, and it has been viewed by 235 million people.
For some reason, this video keeps resurfacing in various sites and posts discussing YouTube's origins. On February 14, 2005, YouTube was officially established as a company. Google later acquired YouTube in October 2006, 18 months after the posting of its first video and 10 months after its formal launch, for $1.65 billion. YouTube is second only to Google in overall web traffic and boasts over 2.5 billion monthly users who collectively watch more than one billion hours of video every day.