Happy birthday to You(Tube): Google’s video-sharing platform turns 20

Recap: It’s been 20 years to the day since the debut of YouTube. The video-sharing site, now the most popular of its kind and the second most popular overall website on the Internet behind Google search, was founded by three former PayPal employees – Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim – on February 14, 2005.

The original idea for YouTube varies depending on who you ask but what we do know for certain is that the very first clip ever uploaded – a video of co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of elephants at the San Diego Zoo – arrived a couple months later on April 23.

In the 19-second clip, Karim mentions how cool the elephants’ trunks are due to their length. It has been viewed nearly 349 million times since.

It didn’t take long for YouTube to pick up momentum. By the end of the year, the site was receiving more than eight million views daily. An ad from Nike featuring soccer player Ronaldinho became the first video on the platform to eclipse the one million views mark. By mid-2006, more than 65,000 new videos were finding their way to YouTube each day. Later that year, Google purchased the platform for $1.65 billion in stock and the rest, as they say, is history.

Google’s acquisition of YouTube has proven to be one of its best investments to date. Despite some hiccups along the way, the video-sharing site has continued to flourish under Mountain View’s watchful eye and has played a role in reshaping how we consume media. These days, over a billion hours of content are consumed on a daily basis.

Just days ago, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan revealed that TV screens have surpassed mobile devices as the primary way that US viewers consume content on the platform. Between streaming services like Netflix, video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, and digital delivery in general, watching television today is nothing like it was just a few short decades ago.

Image credit: chiplanay