YouTube, which was launched 20 years in the past this week with a easy, low-resolution video, has morphed right into a media colossus.
That first-ever video — watch it under — was posted by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim on the San Diego Zoo within the US, who shot footage of himself in entrance of the elephant enclosure, the place he made inane remarks concerning the size of the creatures’ trunks.
“Alright, so right here we’re in entrance of the elephants. The cool factor about these guys is that they’ve actually, actually, actually lengthy trunks,” he mentioned. The video has been watched greater than 356 million occasions.
It might need been inane, however Karim’s video marked the beginning of a revolution in the way in which individuals create, share and devour video content material on-line. It marked the start of user-generated content material on what would change into the world’s largest video-sharing platform.
YouTube was based in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Karim. A yr later, it had change into the de facto platform for sharing movies on-line, with greater than 100 million every day views by mid-2006. In October of that very same yr, Google acquired YouTube for US$1.65-billion in inventory – making it, in hindsight, probably the greatest acquisitions in tech historical past: in 2023, YouTube generated greater than $40-billion in advert income alone and can be price a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} at present if it was a standalone enterprise.
Since its founding, 20 billion movies have been uploaded to the platform.
New options
YouTube was formally launched in South Africa 15 years in the past, in line with an announcement from Google on Thursday.
It mentioned YouTube is rolling out a sequence of options to mark its 20th anniversary, together with a brand new, limited-time YouTube brand, which is described as a “delicate nod to YouTube’s Bay Space beginnings” – in reference to the world round San Francisco that homes Silicon Valley.
Learn: YouTube: a $455-billion media large hiding in plain sight
“Customers may also spot some birthday cheer on choose movies with a particular birthday-themed scrubber and animation once they hit that like button. And for these on their desktop, they will attempt typing ‘bday’ wherever on the watch web page for a fast blast from the previous,” the assertion mentioned.
First video ever uploaded to YouTube:
“Past the quick celebrations, YouTube is unveiling some new options rolling out quickly. These embody a brand new 4x playback pace for YouTube Premium members, and a refreshed TV viewing expertise coming this summer season,” it mentioned, presumably in reference to the northern hemisphere summer season (South Africa’s winter).
“Some enjoyable information about YouTube’s historical past may also be shared, highlighting some helpful, usually ignored options throughout the app and desktop expertise,” it mentioned. — (c) 2025 NewsCentral Media
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