Now a days, our generation practically goes on YouTube for anything and everything. Have a question on a math problem for you homework? Go on YouTube and watch tutorials on how to solve it. Want to know how to do a specific hair and makeup look for prom? Go on YouTube, plenty of girls have most likely done it before and can provide the best tips and instructions on how to complete that desired look. I remember having the original app on my iPhone 5 when I was in early middle school, and being obsessed with watching vlogs and videos that provide tips on how to properly navigate "Walt Disney World." I would be on YouTube for hours on end soaking in all of the content that was possible, and the way that this website and streaming platform has grown and changed is truly incredible. But, how did it all start?
When researching the origins of this website, one of the first facts that popped up was that YouTube was created by three former "PayPal" employees (Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim,) and was determined to be a dating website. How bizarre to think that was the original purpose of this platform, right? Well, it's 100% true. The website was registered and approved with the original logo and everything on February 14th, 2005 (the most romantic day of the year, Valentine's Day.) The whole goal of this was people could go onto YouTube, upload videos of themselves as a pitch to find a partner. They could talk about anything they wanted, and what they were looking for in a relationship. However, the idea really didn't take off as well as the founders thought it would, so soon after the launch date they changed the idea to be a more general video sharing site.
YouTube took off and began when investors gave the co-founders money to be able to run this platform in an office in one of their garages. The first ever YouTube video that was ever uploaded was a video by Jawed Karim (one of the founders,) where he went to the zoo and took videos of him there with elephants in the background. By September of that same year, a Nike commercial was uploaded on the website where it was recorded as the first ever video to reach a million views, thanks to Ronaldinho.
After the year YouTube had from starting in February of 2005, Google saw the potential of this website, and decided to buy it for $1.65 billion dollars in October of 2006. At the time, YouTube only had around 65 employees, and adverts were rolled out less than a year later as a way to make money from the website. Six years later in December of 2012, a video uploaded on YouTube reached a billion views for the firs time. Since then, this website has only continued to be more popular and used by billions of people around the world, making it the second largest website to ever exist.
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