The Surprising Topic of First YouTube Video Posted 10 Years Ago
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iStock Editorial/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The first YouTube video ever was in praise of elephants.
The video sharing website’s story begins with a short video of a guy at a zoo admiring the elephants and their “really, really, really long trunks.”
Ten years later, YouTube has turned into a billion dollar video sharing juggernaut and one of the most visited websites on the Internet. The website is said to be valued as high as $40 billion.
Meanwhile, the first video ever posted on the site 10 years ago on Thursday is nearing 20 million views.
In the 18-second video — entitled “Me at the zoo” — YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim stands in front of the elephant enclosure and delivers a quick message about how the elephants have “really, really, really long trunks,” which he thinks is “cool.”
The video is grainy and a far cry from the slick high-definition videos seen on the site today. It was, however, an important first step in what would become a company that changed the way media is consumed and enabled anyone to build a following and become a star.
Today, as much as 300 hours worth of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.
Although Karim left YouTube early to get a graduate degree in computer science, he earned a windfall for his work on the site when it was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion.
The New York Times reported Karim received 137,443 shares, which were worth around $64 million at the time of the deal.
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