The History of YouTube: What to Know

The History of YouTube: What to Know

YouTube (an American online video sharing platform owned by Google) was launched on February 14, 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. The founders of You tube wanted to create an easy way on how people could upload and share videos worldwide. Before YouTube was introduced, there were no reliable sources for one to share videos on the internet. For this reason, the three buddies, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim thought of starting a platform where people could share their beautiful experiences through online videos.

However, YouTube had a hard time getting traffic in the first months after the launch. They uploaded the first video titled “Me at the zoo” featuring Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005. But despite starting low, YouTube has risen to become the best video upload site and the 2nd most visited online site after google. 

Before YouTube was founded, other video platforms such as Real player, Windows Media Player, Google Video, and Share Your World were available. However, these sites required many processes before uploading videos and were expensive to the users as one was required to pay before sharing videos.

YouTube brought better ways to upload, access, comment, like, and share videos with fewer requirements, unlike the early sites. The three founders started their work at Mellon Park, California, with a dream of building a computer application that would create an efficient way for people to share videos online without complications. Unlike previous video uploading platforms, YouTube grew to become the world’s best video-sharing website.