The Rise of YouTube: Small startup to a $36 billion advertising powerhouse

Today, YouTube is the largest video sharing platform, with over 2.5 billion monthly active users (MAU). There are 122 million daily active users (DAU) on YouTube. YouTube Premium has gained 100 million active subscribers globally. About 46% of internet users visit YouTube at least once a month. Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim met while working at PayPal. They saw the challenge of sharing videos online due to slow internet connections in the early 2000s.

The idea for YouTube was born when Jawed Karim had difficulty finding video footage of Janet Jackson’s super Bowl wardrobe malfunction in 2004. They wanted to find a solution. They registered the domain “youtube.com” on February 14, 2005 and started developing it. The first video uploaded on YouTube was Karim’s trip to the zoo, titled “Me at the zoo.” YouTube officially launched to the public on November 18, 2005. That allowed everyone to share videos.