Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim launched YouTube in 2005 as an online video-sharing company.
The three founders had previously worked at PayPal. YouTube was incorporated in February 2005, and the first video, “Me at the zoo,” was uploaded by Karim on April 23, 2005. The clip shows him at the San Diego Zoo and lasts about 19 seconds.
A frequent mistake is describing Google as YouTube’s founder. Google did not create the service; it acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion in Google stock. Hurley served as chief executive, Chen became chief technology officer, and Karim left the active operating team relatively early.
YouTube grew from user-uploaded clips into a major platform for music, news, education, gaming, and livestreaming.