15 years ago today (4/23/05), the very first video was uploaded to YouTube. The video, called “Me At The Zoo,” features YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim and is every bit as, er, basic as you would imagine.
Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, all three former employees of PayPal, first conceived an idea for a dating service called “Tune In, Hook Up,” but soon shifted their focus to video sharing and named it “YouTube.” The company’s growth was swift and, in 2006, they were gobbled up by Google for $1.6b in stock. By 2012, over 60 hours of videos were being uploaded to YouTube every MINUTE. A year later, the company reached 1 BILLION unique users!
And it all started with a dude talking about elephants.
Andre Gardner is a 45 year radio broadcast professional who continues to live the dream.