YouTube

YouTube was founded in February 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, former PayPal employees. Its first uploaded video, “Me at the zoo,” was posted by Karim on April 23, 2005. The 19-second clip shows him standing in front of elephants at the San Diego Zoo. YouTube’s public beta launched in May 2005, and the service grew rapidly as users uploaded and shared videos through embeddable links and a simple web interface. Google announced its acquisition of YouTube in October 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock, completing the deal the following month. Under Google, YouTube developed into a major platform for music videos, gaming, news, educational material, livestreams, political content, and creator-led entertainment. Its advertising system became central to the business, while the YouTube Partner Program gave eligible creators a way to earn revenue from advertisements, memberships, merchandise features, and other tools. The platform has also produced cultural milestones. “Gangnam Style” by South Korean performer Psy became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views in December 2012. The site’s most-viewed-video record has changed repeatedly, with “Baby Shark Dance,” released by Pinkfong, among the videos to surpass ten billion views. Music labels, broadcasters, independent filmmakers, educators, and individual creators use YouTube channels to distribute work directly to global audiences. YouTube expanded beyond standard uploaded video with livestreaming, paid subscriptions, and short-form video. YouTube TV, launched in 2017, offers a subscription-based live television service in the United States. YouTube Premium provides ad-free viewing, background playback, downloads, and access to YouTube Music Premium in supported regions. YouTube Shorts, introduced internationally after its initial launch in India, provides vertical videos designed for mobile viewing. The company has faced recurring scrutiny over copyright enforcement, misinformation, child safety, content moderation, recommendation systems, and the treatment of creators. Its Content ID system allows rightsholders to identify material that matches reference files and choose whether to block, track, or monetize matching uploads. YouTube also applies community guidelines and age restrictions, though enforcement decisions have often generated public debate. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, YouTube remains a Google-owned service within Alphabet. Its scale has made it influential in online video distribution and in the careers of creators whose work began or became widely known through the platform.