(Photo: Jawed Karim/Youtube)
This is certainly a blast to the past
On April 23, 2005, exactly 15 years ago today, the first-ever YouTube video was uploaded. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted an 18-second video, titled “Me at the zoo,” and it has since gathered over 90 million views.
To this day, it remains the only video on Karim’s channel.
The video starts out with Karim front and center standing in front of some elephants.
#ThisDayInHistory: #April23 w/The first ever YouTube video, titled "Me at the zoo", was published by user – and #ThemTube co-creator – "jawed". https://t.co/KWJAcIOcVb https://t.co/5lKXJsVeOa // #MeAtTheZoo
— Linda Yaccarino (@mediamonarchy) April 23, 2020
“The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks,” Karim says. “And that’s, that’s cool.” Because the video is old and made many years ago, it does not have the traditional sign off people see today where the vlogger or YouTube personality says something like Subscribe to my channel!” or “Like, rate, comment!”
Instead, Karim simply states, “And that’s pretty much all there is to say,” and ends the video. A year after the video was released, Karim and fellow co-founders sold the platform to Google for $1.65 billion.
The platform now sees more than 2 billion logged-in user visits each month, according to YouTube. YouTube also said that a total of one billion hours of content is watched daily.
And to think that one of the world’s biggest platforms all began with Karim filming his visit to the zoo.
By: Maytinee Kramer
