• Source:JND
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First YouTube Video:  Almost 20 years ago, on April 24, 2005, a simple, 19-second video called Me at the zoo carved the history of content creation by becoming the first video ever posted on YouTube. This iconic YouTube video was posted by the co-founder of YouTube. Mr Jawed Karim. In the video, Mr Karim was standing next to elephants at the San Diego Zoo. The upload of this random video revolutionised the digital world. This video is the reason for the way the world shares and watches video content.

What Was the First YouTube Video Ever Uploaded?

Me at the zoo video is simple, just like its title. The video Karim was around 25 years old at the time the video was posted. In the iconic YouTube video, Karim stands in front of elephants and speaks to the 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 highlight of the first-ever YouTube video was its rawness, lack of production and spontaneity, which all later on became the reason for YouTube's popularity. YouTube has now become a content creation giant In the digital dynamics. The video has been viewed by more than 317 million people so far, along with millions of likes, which only showcases YouTube's humble beginnings. 

When Was YouTube Launched? 

YouTube was created in February of 2005 by three ex-PayPal coworkers: Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley. The original concept of the trio was to make YouTube a dating website where people would post videos to introduce themselves. Realising the larger potential of the platform, where anyone could be able to post any type of video, the trio changed the original idea of the dating concept for their digital video platform.

The YouTube.com domain name was registered on February 14, 2005. Two months later, Karim posted Me At The Zoo video as a stepping stone for a new age of online media.

What Was The Impact Of the Very First YouTube Video? 

When the initial upload occurred, YouTube was operating in beta status, which was not yet available to the wider audience. The site didn't launch in official capacity until May 2005. In the same year, in December, YouTube was already receiving more than two million video views per day. It was a number which had blown everybody’s mind.

In November 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion, conquering the video-sharing market. Nowadays, YouTube has more than 2 billion visitors globally, and viewers consume more than a billion hours of video daily.

Why The First-Ever YouTube Video Matters? 

The video showed people that anybody, anywhere, could now tell their story in front of the world. This video was hands-down the beginning of user-generated content. It is the reason for vlogs, tutorials, music videos, and other viral phenomena across the globe. Additionally, the video clip represented the shift from passive media consumption to interactive and participatory media.

The first-ever YouTube Video, Me At The Zoo, is more than a fleeting glimpse of a fellow at a zoo. It's the seed that sprouted the world's biggest video-sharing website. It has impacted billions of lives and somehow still manages to.