Fifteen years ago today, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the platform’s first video (18 seconds of him talking about elephants at the San Diego Zoo). Here’s what’s happened since then:
2005: YouTube launches.
2006: Google buys YouTube for $1.7 billion.
2007: “Charlie bit my finger” becomes the first viral video, proving babies are cuter than cats, and YouTube goes mobile-friendly the same month the first iPhone hits stores.
2008: “Evolution of Dance” gets a record-breaking 100 million views.
2009: Justin Bieber. Vevo. The music world is never the same.
2012: Psy’s “Gangnam Style” gets a historic 1 billion views.
2014: Susan Wojcicki becomes YouTube’s third CEO.
2017: The “Adpocalypse” and “Elsagate” throw the platform under public scrutiny.
As of last year, 500 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube…every minute. There’s no sign of that number going down, especially amid COVID-19.
