It lacks the high production values present in so many of today’s YouTube videos, but then Jawed Karim wasn’t aiming for anything slick. It was merely a little something to launch his new video streaming site.
Filmed at San Diego Zoo by a friend and posted on April 23, 2005, Karim says straight to camera: “All right, so here we are in front of the elephants. The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks, and that’s cool, and that’s pretty much all there is to say.”
The clip, titled Me at the Zoo, lasts a mere 17 seconds and has been viewed more than 350 million times. Not bad for an elephant video.
Within 18 months, Google had seen the potential of the fast-growing site and acquired the platform for $1.65 billion. The deal has since proven to be highly valuable as YouTube now generates more than $35 billion annually in ad revenue alone.
On that April day 20 years ago, a mere 17 seconds of video was uploaded to YouTube. These days, up to 500 hours of video are uploaded to the site every single minute, which amounts to an astonishing 82 years of content added daily.
The most-viewed video on the platform is currently Baby Shark Dance. The children’s song video was uploaded to YouTube eight years ago and has since amassed more than 13.5 billion views. The platform is also filled with content made by talented creators who are able to make a living out of their efforts. And there are still lots of cat videos on it, too.
Despite having 5.34 million subscribers, Karim, who founded YouTube along with Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, has never uploaded another video to his channel. He has, however, occasionally changed the text in the description, his most recent update, made in the last few months, saying, “Microplastics are accumulating in human brains at an alarming rate,” along with a link to a video on the subject.
Karim keeps a pretty low profile these days, but remains active as a software engineer, investor, and mentor in the tech industry. He may even visit San Diego Zoo occasionally to marvel at where it all started.