The History of YouTube – When Did YouTube Start

Caused by Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley, YouTube first start in 2005 and has now become one of the most visited websites in the history of youtube the internet. As employees of PayPal Company, the three soon realized, in 2004, that there wasn’t one place where videos could be shared. Years later, Karim explained that it was the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident as well as the tsunami in December that triggered this idea.

While a capital-funded startup, YouTube’s idea received an $11.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital in 2005. In February, the domain name was registered in the headquarters of a pizzeria in California. In April, this first-ever video was uploaded by Karim named ‘Me at the Zoo.’ Next, a Beta testing period, the site launched in December 2005, and a Nike commercial became the first video to receive one million views.

After high-speed growth, Google acquired the company less than a year later for around $1.65 billion. However, this site was still relatively small compared to what we see today, and it hadn’t even reached the UK and many other countries. In June 2007, the site eventually started in the UK as well as eight other countries. After further growth, HD videos were introduced in December 2008, and there were more people now finding different uses for the site.

In 2009, significant events happened for YouTube, including the full launch of HD (now up to 1080p rather than just 720p), one billion video views per day, and a partnership by Channel 4 meant that they had catch-up TV for the first time. As mentioned before, there were also people finding different uses for the site, and it was around this time when gaming and vlogging channels started to gain interest.

In 2010, new types of ads did introduce, and the site soon hit three billion daily views mid-way through 2011. As audiences start to realize what can be found on the site, many gamers and vloggers now had an opportunity to earn a living only by posting videos on YouTube and receiving revenue from ads and support.

At the end of 2011, the entire site received a considerable overhaul. Around 1 year later, the first-ever video to hit one billion views was Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ shortly after the site announced four billion daily video views.

Since 2012, YouTube has gone from strength to strength and now finds itself a multi-billion dollar company. Near-terms of the site itself, it has recently added live streaming, around 5 billion videos are watched each day, over 1.3 billion people use the site, and 300 hours of video are uploaded each and every minute.

The History of YouTube In the years ahead, the support for YouTube is only going to get stronger, and it has been predicted that half of all under-30s will not pay for a TV subscription because of YouTube!