This past Monday, April 23rd, celebrated an important anniversary. "What anniversary is that?" you may ask. Well, on April 23, 2005, Jawed Karim posted a very short video on YouTube. Karim is a co-founder of the iconic YouTube channel, and his 18 second video, "Me at the Zoo," was the first video ever uploaded to the channel! Yes, this past Monday was YouTube's 13th birthday!
Compared to the videos posted to the channel today, Karim's little contribution is pretty tame. He uploaded the video a few months after he secured the domain. Ironically, it is still the only video on Karim's YouTube channel, but it has been viewed over 48 million times!
So YouTube is now a teenager. YouTube has shaped the way we view media online. Despite the fact that Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock making Karim a very rich young man, YouTube is still independently operated. It is very hard to believe how fast the channel has grown. It will be interesting to see where the next 13 years takes the channel.