Exactly 15 years ago today — April 23, 2005 — the first YouTube video was uploaded. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted the 18-second video, titled “Me at the zoo.” To date, it has over 90 million views and is the only video public on Karim’s channel.
YouTube has since evolved into high-quality streaming and has seen a variety of content since its inception. Pranks, DIY projects, music videos, beauty tutorials are a sampling of the type of videos available on the platform today. However, Karim’s video is a relic of much simpler times — back when 240p was the normal video quality.
In the video, Karim stands in front of a zoo’s elephant enclosure, just like the title suggests. He begins, “Alright, so here we are, in front of the elephants.”
“The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks,” he continues. “And that’s, that’s cool.”
He signs off, “And that’s pretty much all there is to say.” The 18-second clip lacks the call to “comment, like and subscribe” that blares in many YouTube videos that the platform hosts today.
So, what happened to Karim? A year after the original YouTube video, Karim and fellow co-founders, Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion. And now, the platform boasts more than two billion logged-in users every month, according to YouTube.
Watch “Me at the zoo,” the first YouTube video uploaded below:
First YouTube Video Uploaded — Sources
CNN
YouTube
