How it all started - Youtube

The story of how YouTube started goes back to early 2005 when three former PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, decided to create a video-sharing platform. The idea for YouTube came about when the three friends struggled to find and share video clips online, as there was no easy way to upload and share videos at the time.

The trio set out to create a platform that would allow users to easily upload and share videos online. They quickly got to work, with Hurley designing the logo, Chen coding the website, and Karim developing the website's video player.

On Valentine's Day in 2005, the first-ever video was uploaded to the site, titled "Me at the zoo," which featured Karim talking about elephants at the San Diego Zoo. The video was only 18 seconds long, but it marked the beginning of a video revolution.

As more and more people started using the site to share their own videos, YouTube's popularity grew rapidly. Within a year, the site was serving more than 100 million video views every day. In November 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion, recognizing the potential of the platform as a major player in the digital world.

After the acquisition, YouTube continued to innovate and expand. In 2007, the site introduced its partner program, which allowed users to monetize their videos and earn revenue from advertising. This opened up a whole new world of possibilities for content creators, making YouTube a viable career path for many.

Over the years, YouTube has become an integral part of the internet landscape, with billions of users around the world consuming and sharing videos on the platform every day. It has transformed the way we consume and share information, entertainment, and news, and has given rise to a whole new generation of creators and influencers.