The Invention of YouTube

“Let's say you're in your 20s and you start your first Internet company. Let's say 21 months later you sell it for $1.65 billion.” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006)

YouTube was created in 2005 by twenty-nine year old Chad Hurley, twenty-eight year old Steve Chen, and twenty-seven year old Jawed Karim. In 2002, the three men were employed by PayPal. After PayPal was purchased by eBay, they each received a generous portion of the shares. Their story began when, “Chad's greatest stroke of luck at PayPal was meeting Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, two PayPal engineers…” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Before he became CEO of YouTube, Chad Hurley attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Hurley majored in Computer Science but eventually switched his degree to graphic design and printmaking. Steve Chen attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the state funded boarding school, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Although Chen left, “a semester and a half early to work for PayPal” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006), he became chief technology officer for YouTube. Jawed Karim was the third co-founder of YouTube, but “… planned to resume computer studies, so he opted out of management and agreed to take a smaller ownership….” (Hopkins, J., USA Today, 11 October 2006). Karim went on to attend graduate school at Stanford.

The invention of YouTube is told in two different stories. Hurley and Chen claimed that the idea was created, “after they had trouble sharing videos online that had been shot at a dinner party at Steve's San Francisco apartment” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Karim claims that he proposed the idea after having difficulty finding online videos of the Janet Jackson super bowl revealing and the tragic tsunami in Thailand that winter. All in all, as it has been quoted by Jawed Karim, “It took the three of us” (Hopkins, J., USA Today, 11 October 2006) and “the equal efforts of all three of us” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). It is in no doubt that all three men were co-founders of eBay. The early idea of YouTube first began as, “a video version of HOTorNOT” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006) which started as, “A dating site called Tune In Hook Up….” (Hopkins, J., USA Today, 11 October 2006). This idea eventually became a video-sharing site which, “the founders later developed the current site, now broadcasting 100 million short videos daily on myriad subjects” (Hopkins, J., USA Today, 11 October 2006). The site started out as several small ideas which lead to a huge idea. In 2005, the funding of $8.5 million was provided by Sequoia Capital, an investment company that “helped finance Apple, Google and other valley greats” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Allowing users to share individual videos, this became the YouTube site now enjoyed across the world.

YouTube grew and became the empire to sharing videos. It was reported in 2006, that YouTube grew to employ 67 employees (Hopkins, J., USA Today). The hype started with a short Saturday Night Live video clip called Lazy Sunday that increased, “visits to youtube.com [by] 83%” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Without having to download any software or register, “YouTube became a phenomenon in 2006 for many reasons, but one in particular: it was both easy and edgy, a rare combination” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Hurley and Chen also made the smart decision to not require viewers “… to sit through ads before videos played” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Google bought YouTube for 1.65 billion in November 2006. Google wanted to keep YouTube as independent as possible to preserve its branding. Although executives have kept Google and YouTube separate, “Google will get some control…. [because] YouTube's managers must now report to Chad or Steve and a corresponding Google exec” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). YouTube has become a well known site for all viewers from any age. Thanks to three men in their late twenties that had the ambition to launch that small idea into reality. It just goes to prove anything is possible in a short amount of time.

Sources:

Cloud, J. (16 December 2006). The Gurus of YouTube Time Magazine. Posted in Time Magazine. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570721,00.html

Hopkins, J. (11 October 2006). Surprise! There’s a third YouTube co-founder. Posted in USA Today. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-10-11-youtube-karim_x.htm

© 2009 YouTube, LLC. Company History. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/t/about