On February 14, 2005, three former PayPal employees—Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim—founded YouTube, marking the beginning of a platform that changed how the world shared online videos. 

The concept for YouTube was born from the founders’ visionary desire to simplify the process of sharing videos online. Their innovative vision was to create a user-friendly platform that allowed individuals an effortless way to upload, view, and share videos with others without any technical barriers. This vision led to the domain name “YouTube.com” registration on February 14, 2005, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Early Development

After securing the domain, the founders diligently worked to develop the site’s infrastructure. On April 23, 2005, Jawed Karim uploaded the first-ever YouTube video, a 19-second clip titled “Me at the Zoo,” featuring himself at the San Diego Zoo. This humble yet significant clip marked the platform’s inaugural content and set the stage for the future of user-generated videos. 

In November 2005, Sequoia Capital’s investment of $3.5 million in the company propelled further development and scaling of the platform. By December, YouTube was officially launched to the public and quickly gained immense popularity as users embraced the ability to share and discover diverse video content, marking the beginning of its rapid growth. 

Acquisition by Google

Google acquired the platform on October 9, 2006, for $1.65 billion in stock. This acquisition backed YouTube with resources to expand its services and integrate with Google’s existing infrastructure, solidifying its position as a leading video-sharing website. 

From its modest beginnings in 2005, YouTube has transformed into a global platform with over 2.7 billion monthly active users as of January 2024. Users collectively watch more than one billion hours of video daily.