The first YouTube video will be exactly 20 years old on Wednesday.
20 years ago, YouTube was a very different place than today. Pictured is YouTube’s appearance from 2011. Anatoliy Babiy, Adobe Stock / AOP
- The first YouTube video was released 20 years ago.
- The vision of the founders of YouTube for their product was initially lost.
- Google bought YouTube for $ 1.65 billion just over a year after launching the platform.
The first video of the YouTube video platform was released on April 23, 2005, exactly two decades ago.
On the first video posted on YouTube Jawed Karimone of the founders, visits the San Diego zoo and talks about elephants. More than 355 million times the video of less than twenty seconds has been watched over the years.
YouTube was also founding with Karim Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. All three worked at PayPal at that time.
The story goes on below the video.
It was to become a dating service
The founders later said that YouTube had to become a video -based dating platform where users looking for a partner could have published videos of themselves. The domain youtube.com was aptly activated on Valentine’s Day 2005.
YouTube was initially marketed as a new kind of dating platform. However, as such, it did not take off, as the users’ hindrance proved difficult. As the most desperate act, the trio tried to attract women to publish videos for themselves against a $ 20 fee.
– We couldn’t really describe our product, Karim described the challenges of the early days For Vicel Ten years ago.
When you travel to YouTube and April 2005 with the Internet Archive Wayback Machine tool, there is a very different view than today. At that time, YouTube was marketed as a video -based dating site. With the search tool shown in the picture, the user was able to look for the gender of the desired gender in the age range of their choice. Internet Archive Wayback Machine
However, some users appeared on the platform. However, they used Youtube differently than they were intended. Instead of dating announcements, users began to publish videos about their daily activities, holidays and pets.
The final direction of YouTube was cemented at a very early stage. The platform was needed for a year earlier that had caused a huge uproar Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlaken Super Bowl Intermediate Show.
Forbes According to Karim, Karim had missed the performance and was frustrated even before the founding of YouTube was to find video footage in the later iconic flashes.
Even though Vimeo and Dailymotionin, video platforms existed before YouTube, the world did not yet know the concept of a viral video.
YouTube’s current form began to emerge at a rapid pace when the trio decided to give their users to determine what Youtube is all about and freely publish content that might be of interest to others.
– By June, we had completely re -made the site by making it more open and general. It worked, Karim told Vicel.
The videos uploaded to YouTube on Jackson’s flashing work too. At the same time, they helped to accelerate the growth of the platform. Tsunami videos following the earthquake of the Indian Ocean were also attracted to YouTube.
Google Billion Offer
Google acquired YouTube in October 2006. At that time, it was the largest acquisition in Google’s entire eight -year history. In return, the trio received $ 1.65 billion, or just under $ 1.5 billion, with Google shares.
– This is the next step in the Evolution of the Internet, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said after the announcement of the trade NBC by.
– For Google, this seems like an attractive deal, comments Standard & Poor analyst Scott Kessler.
At that time, the analysts had also estimated Microsoft and Yahoo that they were interested in buying YouTube.