YouTube turns 20 years old today : NPR

Twenty years ago, three former Paypal employees of YouTube.com launched it, and it is originally intended as a dating site with the slogan “Tune In, Hook Up”.

Participated founders-Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Karim Al-Fawa-all of them to attract users, so they created the first video on YouTube themselves. A clip, entitled “I am in the zoo”, a cream appeared in the San Diego Zoo.

When doing this, they built a platform where anyone with an internet connection can download and watch videos.

What do people do with this newly discovered power?

What they are still doing today: dumping the Internet with clips from Saturday night Live– Like “Sunday lazy”, one of the early virus videos.

It was quickly removed at the NBC request But it was later regained on YouTube, the video highlighted the main tension in YouTube. For some, it was a violation of copyright. For others, nothing is less than democracy in a short -shape video. The following year, Google YouTube bought more than $ 1.6 billion.

In October 2006, Karim shared with students in Alma Matter, Illinois University in Urbana Champin, what everything means to him: “If you have a good idea, you go out there and make a video clip, you can – you can get a millions of millions on Almost for free. “

Over the years, YouTube faced disputes – more CollectionToxic content and radical algorithms.

But “I am in the zoo” still exists, the viewers mention more innocent. With 348 million views, it’s far from the most watched video: “Children’s shark”