Edgar Cervantes / Techkip
Highlights
- It’s been 20 years because the first YouTube video was ever uploaded.
- The video, “Me on the zoo,” was uploaded by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005.
On April 23, 2005, precisely 20 years in the past right this moment, a low-resolution, 18-second video titled “Me on the zoo” quietly went up and launched what would grow to be the largest video platform on the planet — YouTube. Uploaded on April 23, 2005, the tiny clip options Jawed Karim, certainly one of YouTube’s co-founders, casually speaking about elephants on the San Diego Zoo.
By right this moment’s requirements of YouTube movies, “Me on the zoo” is kind of an underwhelming watch. There’s no manufacturing high quality, no audio mastering, nothing however a 25-year-old software program engineer pointing to elephants behind him and saying, “The cool factor about these guys is that they’ve actually, actually, actually lengthy trunks.”
Unknowingly, although, Karim was making web historical past. The video, which now has over 355 million views, is an emblem of YouTube’s beginnings and the beginning of the period of video content material.
From trunks to tendencies: The zoo solely acquired wilder
20 years after Jawed uploaded the primary YouTube video, the platform stays an ever-evolving beast. What began with one man and a few elephants now quantities to over 500 hours of content material uploaded each minute! Truly, we’re fairly positive the quantity is increased, and YouTube simply hasn’t up to date its stats shortly. In 2025, content material on YouTube contains every little thing from private vlogs to billion-view music movies, dwell streams, podcasts, documentaries, Shorts, and now, even AI-generated movies! A 25-year-old Jawed would definitely not have imagined this!
To mark the anniversary of “Me on the zoo,” YouTube has even added a tiny cake slider to the video, together with an elephant icon that takes you to Jawed’s YouTube channel. He solely has this one video up, by the way in which, and 5.34 million subscribers! In February this 12 months, he modified the video’s description to attract consideration to the risks of microplastics.
In some ways, right this moment’s YouTube is an enormous zoo in its personal proper. It’s a chaotic, colourful, and infrequently overwhelming house stuffed with content material, each good and completely horrible. However that’s the great thing about YouTube. It’s algorithm-driven insanity and a necessity on the identical time.
A platform that modified every little thing
Joe Maring / Techkip
Through the years, YouTube has branched out far past its unique idea of a video streaming platform. It has grow to be one of many cornerstones of web tradition, with the launch of sub-platforms and companies like YouTube Music, YouTube Youngsters, YouTube TV, and YouTube Premium.
Are you able to think about — again in 2005, watching YouTube movies in 240p or 360p was the norm! Quick-forward to 2025, and the platform now helps 4K, 8K, HDR, and even VR movies.
And whereas YouTube faces rising criticism over the ad-serving big it has grow to be, it stays some of the influential and culture-defining platforms within the historical past of the web. Twenty years in, and YouTube doesn’t look like slowing down. It might not be evolving to everybody’s liking, but it surely’s actually having a second due to the rise of the brief video format. Come to think about it, “Me on the zoo” is a YouTube Quick in spirit, and a reminder that anybody, wherever on the planet, can add one thing that might change the world.
