20 years of YouTube. How the most popular video hosting in the world appeared and developed

On February 14, 2005, the YouTube domain was registered. By now, this video hosting service has replaced television for many people and has become the main source of leisure. We decided to remember where it all began and find out why this particular site was able to bypass all competitors.

The YouTube site was created in February 2003 by three former PayPal employees — Jawed Karim, Steven Shih Chen and Chad Hurley. It took two years to debug all the systems, and on February 14, 2005, the YouTube domain was registered. It was not by chance that the date coincided with Valentine's Day. Initially, it was supposed to be a platform for online dating with the ability to publish videos. Programmers were even willing to pay girls $20 if they would post their profiles. But even with this approach, the idea did not work.

But people liked the ability to upload their own videos. Flash Video technology was used for this, which allowed for high quality with relatively small amounts of transferred data. The very first video was uploaded on April 24, 2005. This is a 19-second clip of Jawed Karim, which he filmed at the San Diego Zoo.

In May 2005, public access was opened to everyone. Therefore, the management decided to reorient the site to publishing videos. Similar platforms already existed by that time, but YouTube combined convenience and speed. As a result, many people chose it as a platform for publishing videos. In September of the same year, the first video gained a million views. It turned out to be a Nike ad featuring footballer Ronaldinho.

By November 2006, that is, a year and a half after the launch, the number of registered users exceeded one hundred million. At the same time, offers from large companies began to arrive. For example, the NBC television company signed a contract to host its content.

The increase in activity attracted the attention of large corporations to the site. In particular, Google became interested in it. This company already had its own analogue called Google Video, but it was not as popular. In November 2006, an offer was made to purchase all of YouTube's assets for $1.65 billion. Of course, the guys happily agreed. Such a story is not uncommon in the entertainment industry. Something similar happened with ICQ, a successful startup of young people, which was acquired by the giant America On-Line for 407 million dollars. We told about this story in a separate article.

But if the fate of the messenger ultimately turned out sadly, then YouTube developed in the right direction. Chad Hurley remained CEO until 2010 and was engaged in the implementation of video hosting capabilities in Google systems. He was replaced by Salar Kamangar, who had previously developed the AdWords contextual advertising service.

As is now, the main content on YouTube is created by popular bloggers. In May 2007, they were given the opportunity to join the affiliate program and receive money for their videos.

The main income came from advertising. In February 2024, users were given the opportunity to turn it off. However, to do this, they need to buy a YouTube Red subscription, which was later renamed YouTube Premium.

At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that for many people, YouTube has replaced television. In February 2017, it became possible to legally watch TV channels with sports programs, series, and news directly on this site in real time. The service is called YouTube TV, although it is only available in the United States of America.

But if the closest analogues of the site are noticeably lagging behind in terms of audience reach, then in other video formats it has serious competitors. For example, the Chinese TikTok with its short vertical clips, which began operating in 2016. Its analogue called YouTube Shorts was launched only in 2020. However, TikTok continues to outperform in this area.

A similar situation has developed with streaming services. YouTube Live was launched in 2008, three years before Twitch, but it was not very popular at the time. Google managed to overtake its competitor only in the fourth quarter of 2022, largely due to the enormous efforts that were made to develop this area.

Below we have collected informationInteresting facts about the site.

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Do you watch videos on YouTube? Or do you prefer other video hosting sites? Share your opinions in the comments!