YouTube Started As A Video Dating Site
The founders (Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim) registered the domain name on Valentine’s Day. They weren’t sure of the direction they wanted to take the site, but gave it the tagline “Tune In Hook Up.”, because of the date.
According to CNET, at the 2016 SXSW conference, Chen said, “We always thought there was something with `video there, but what would be the actual practical application? […] We thought dating would be the obvious choice.”
The First Video Uploaded To YouTube In 2005 Was Titled “Me at the zoo”
Me at the zoo was uploaded by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim. The title has never changed, but occasionally Karim will disagree with a decision made by YouTube’s current management and use the video description to criticize them.
The Longest Video Uploaded To YouTube Was 596.5 Hours
Jonathan Harchick has twice set the record for the longest video ever on YouTube. Harchick’s first uploaded a 571-hour long video and later beat that by uploading “The Longest Video on YouTube: 596.5 Hours “.
Neither of Harchick’s videos are still publicly viewable on YouTube. The longest video on YouTube in 2022 is likely the 213 hour long video uploaded by user Reazon Zean.
The First Video To Reach A Million Views On YouTube Was A Nike Ad
In October 2005, Nike uploaded an ad featuring Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho. The video reached a million views ten days later. Nike later removed the video, but in 2015 Nike uploaded a remastered version of the video to celebrate the ad’s 10th anniversary.
Because brand licensing of media is sometimes dumb, that remastered video has also since been removed from Nike’s channel. The video was uploaded by user teammac05 (who seemingly has no affiliation with Nike) in August 2006, and is still viewable on YouTube in 2022.
The First Video To Hit A Billion Views On YouTube Was Gangnam Style
In 2012 “Gangnam Style” by Psy hit 1 billion views on YouTube. While no longer the only video to do so (It’s not even the most viewed video anymore), “Gangnam Style” was the first to break the barrier.
YouTube’s Early Corporate Offices In San Mateo, California, Were Between A Pizzeria And A Japanese Restaurant
In 2006, The Washington Post wrote, “There’s no sign outside the office of Internet video sensation YouTube Inc., located in a second-story loft along the main retail strip of this small Silicon Valley town. Two glass doors, sandwiched between a pizza place and a Japanese restaurant, lead to a clunky elevator, which chugs up one floor and deposits visitors inside YouTube’s one-room suite, where 60 young employees are crammed elbow-to-elbow, staring into computer screens.”
Header Image: Photo by Szabo Viktor on Unsplash
Mason Pelt, is a guest author for Internet News Flash. He’s been a staff writer for SiliconANGLE and has written for TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Social Media Today and more.
He’s a Managing Director of Push ROI, a Dallas SEO Agency, and he acted as an informal adviser when building the first Internet News Flash website.
Discussion about this post