YouTube is a popular video-sharing app with more than 2.6 billion monthly active users. This popular social media app is also the 2nd most popular search engine after Google. According to the most recent statistics, YouTube receives more than 500 hours of newly uploaded videos every minute, and one billion hours of videos are watched on this platform daily.
Indeed, the platform has come a long way from posting the first YouTube video 17 years ago. The site has become one of the most famous video distribution apps. Well, many things make YouTube worthwhile, from the latest music videos to the resourceful tutorials, not forgetting the funny clips, but when did YouTube come out?
If you’re a YouTuber wondering how this platform started, or you’re a brand that wants to know more about the site before you leverage its power, we will give you a detailed look at the history of YouTube below.
And when you’re done check out our other helpful YouTube guides:
Who and When Was YouTube Created?
YouTube was created on Valentine’s Day of 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. The former PayPal employees wanted to create a site that was similar to the video-sharing site Flickr. The three hoped their new site would allow ordinary people to create, share, and view online home videos.
The founders had come up with the idea at a dinner party in 2004. They were frustrated that they couldn’t find a platform that allowed them to share videos online. So the three came together and decided to run their startup from Hurley’s garage in Menlo Park, California. The site was opened to the public in May 2005 as an online dating site where users were allowed to upload and share their videos for free.
Despite the site having a hard time attracting traffic in its first month, the platform was getting more than two million video views daily by its official opening in December 2005.
In 2006, the site gained more ground in the digital world as its daily video views grew to 100 million, with more than 65,000 new videos being uploaded on the platform daily. Google became impressed with YouTube’s growth and, in the same year, bought it for $1.65 million.
What Was the First YouTube Video?
The first video was posted by co-founder Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005. The 18-minute clip was titled “Me at the zoo.” There, Karim was standing near a couple of elephants at the San Diego Zoo. The clip that was posted a month before the platform’s public beta launch has over 239 million views and more than 12 million likes.
Turning Points in YouTubes History (2005-2015)
Here are notable YouTube development milestones from 2005 to 2015:
On 14th February 2005, Hurley, the YouTube CEO, registered its domain, logo, and trademark.
However, the platform launched as a dating site didn’t attract many users, forcing the cofounders to use ads that would pay $20 to anyone who’d upload a dating video. In April 2005, the founders changed the platform into a free video-hosting site and ensured each video uploaded had a unique link. It’s also this month that the first ever YouTube video was uploaded.
From YouTube data, in September 2005, the platform received a financial boost from the Sequoia Capital firm, which invested $3.5 million in the company during its Series A funding round. Later, Roelof Botha, Sequoia’s partner, became part of YouTube’s board of directors. In October 2005, the platform had its first viral video, a Nike ad clip that hit 1 million views. The clip featured Ronaldinho, the Brazilian soccer player, receiving his pair of Nike’s Golden Boots.
In December 2005, the platform officially opened its beta version to the public.
By this time, YouTube’s number of views had grown to about 8 million daily. In February 2006, YouTube started to showcase ads on the platform, with the first advert being that of Prison Break. In April 2006, YouTube got more financial investment from Sequoia and Artis Capital Management during its second funding round.
In June 2006, YouTube partnered with NBC to promote its fall TV lineup.
This partnership was the start of several other collaborations between the social media channel and other content creators. In October 2006, Google offered to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion. Once the deal was sealed on November 13th, the company moved its headquarters to San Bruno in California.
In June 2007, YouTube launched its mobile site.
The next month, the platform teamed up with CNN and hosted the 2007 presidential debate. The first YouTube video ads were introduced in August of the same year. The ads featured semi-transparent banners that popped up at the bottom of the YouTube videos. In October 2007, YouTube’s content verification program was born. The following month saw the platform successfully start its partner program that allowed creators to earn ad revenue from their videos.
In September 2008, Judson Laipply’s “Evolution of Dance” video became a hit earning him 100 million views.
The following month, the platform added sponsored videos and pre-roll ads to its ads offerings.
In April 2009, YouTube together with Vivendi, a media company, launched Vevo.
The music video service that provides music videos to YouTube. October 2010 saw activist Dan Savage launch the “it gets better” LGBTQ campaign on the platform. The campaign went viral and attracted support from renowned people such as Barack Obama. Three months later, the platform launched skippable ads.
April 2011 saw the launch of YouTube Live.
YouTube again hosted the presidential debate in October 2012 in addition to streaming live speeches from the different presidential candidates. In December 2012, the Gangnam-style video became the first YouTube clip to garner 1 billion views.
In January 2013, YouTube set up a YouTube studio in New York, London, Tokyo, San Paulo, and Los Angeles for YouTubers in these cities.
In March of the same year, the platform reached a record 1 billion monthly users.
In February 2013, the platform launched YouTube Kids.
The family-friendly channel showcasing safe content for minors.
YouTube: Through the Decades (2015-2022)
Let’s now look at YouTube growth between 2015 and 2022.
In August 2015, YouTube Gaming was born.
This service allows gamers to stream their gaming sessions to a live audience. In October 2015, YouTube Red, today known as YouTube Premium, was unveiled. This is a subscription service that lets viewers watch their favorite videos without ads.
January 2016 saw Adele’s music video “Hello” become the fastest clip to hit 1 billion views.
It reached the milestone in a record 88 days. In April 2018, a shooting occurred at YouTube headquarters, where a woman killed herself and wounded three people.
In July 2021, YouTube removed all unlisted videos uploaded before 2017
Its channels and announced that these videos would no longer be available on the platform.
How Does YouTube Make Money
From the latest YouTube data, YouTube earns about $28.8 billion yearly. However, considering that the videos uploaded on this platform are free, you may wonder how YouTube makes money.
This Google-owned company, like other Google-owned businesses, makes most of its revenue from advertising. YouTube advertising revenue comes from different advertisements, including:
Sponsored ads – The owners of the sponsored ads pay YouTube some money every time a platform user clicks the ad.
Embedded ads – Embedded ads play at the beginning before you watch your video. Other embedded ads that give YouTube its revenue are placed in between clips. These ads earn the platform revenue as the advertisers pay YouTube based on the ad’s total views. A part of this revenue is also given to the creator of the video.
Landing page ads – YouTube also makes revenue from landing page ads. Landing page advertisements are banner ads that are found on YouTube’s landing page. These ads have videos and pictures that promote the advertiser’s products.
YouTube also makes money from its subscription business model. The platform’s YouTube premium is found across platforms, including YouTube Music, YouTube Gaming, and YouTube Videos. The Members of YouTube Premium pay $11.99 monthly to enjoy uninterrupted gaming, music, and videos.
A few features that come with Premium membership include:
- Access to ad-free content
- Access to exclusive Premium YouTube content
- Access to YouTube premium music
- Access to videos and songs while offline
- Access to background play when a member’s screen is off or when using other apps
The platform also makes revenue from channel membership. This feature allows content creators to offer special offers to their subscribers, such as discounts, official products, and merchandise. YouTube publishers who are channel members can also add a join button on their pages. YouTube subscribers who want to receive these special perks must pay $4.99 monthly. YouTube takes 30% of this membership fee while the YouTube partners remain with the rest.
Another source of revenue for YouTube is its TV streaming platform, YouTube TV. This US-based platform has more than a billion users. The platform is subscription-based, and users must pay $49.99 monthly to access it. YouTube TV has more than 70 networks plus YouTube premium channels that users can subscribe to.
Interesting Facts About YouTube
Here are a few interesting YouTube facts:
- YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google.
- YouTube was at first designed to be a dating platform.
- YouTube is available in 76 different languages.
- YouTube has more than 2 billion active monthly users.
- YouTube domain was acquired on Valentine’s Day, 2005.
- PayPal indirectly funded the launch of YouTube.
- YouTube is owned by Google.
- There are 98 localized versions of YouTube.
- Ronaldinho’s video produced by Nike was the first to hit 1 million views on YouTube.
- The Gangnam-style video was the first to hit a billion views on YouTube.
Conclusion
There you have it! Everything you need to know about YouTube.
At a time when the internet was in its infancy, YouTube pioneered the idea of sharing and consuming online videos. The platform continues to grow, and we can only wish it the best in its future endeavors.
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