Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- It’s been 20 years because the first YouTube video was uploaded.
- YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the video “Me on the zoo” on April 23, 2005.
- The video, which now has over 355 million views, symbolizes YouTube’s humble beginnings.
On April 23, 2005, precisely 20 years in the past right now, a low-resolution, 18-second video titled “Me on the zoo” quietly went up and launched what would turn out to be the most important video platform on the planet — YouTube. Uploaded on April 23, 2005, the tiny clip options Jawed Karim, one in all YouTube’s co-founders, casually speaking about elephants on the San Diego Zoo.
By right now’s requirements of YouTube movies, “Me on the zoo” is sort 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 a logo of YouTube’s beginnings and the beginning of the period of video content material.
From trunks to traits: The zoo solely acquired wilder
Twenty 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 greater, and YouTube simply hasn’t up to date its stats shortly. In 2025, content material on YouTube contains all the things from private vlogs to billion-view music movies, dwell streams, podcasts, documentaries, Shorts, and now, even AI-generated movies! A 25-year-old Jawed will surely not have imagined this!
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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 best way, and 5.34 million subscribers! In February this yr, he modified the video’s description to attract consideration to the risks of microplastics.
In some ways, right now’s YouTube is a large zoo in its personal proper. It’s a chaotic, colourful, and infrequently overwhelming area stuffed with content material, each good and completely horrible. However that’s the fantastic thing about YouTube. It’s algorithm-driven insanity and a necessity on the identical time.
A platform that modified all the things
Joe Maring / Android Authority
Through the years, YouTube has branched out far past its authentic idea of a video streaming platform. It has turn out to be one of many cornerstones of web tradition, with the launch of sub-platforms and companies like YouTube Music, YouTube Children, 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 growing criticism over the ad-serving large it has turn out 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 seem like slowing down. It will not be evolving to everybody’s liking, nevertheless it’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, anyplace on the planet, can add one thing that might change the world.
