The grainy footage, uploaded on April 23, 2005, of a man standing in front of the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo — “All right, so here we are in front of the elephants” — does not look like the sort of thing that would touch off a video revolution.
And yet, two decades after that inauspicious start, YouTube is now a cornerstone of the media ecosystem. It’s where people go for music videos and four-hour-long hotel reviews. It is a platform for rising stars and conspiracy theorists. It’s a repository for vintage commercials and 10 hours of ambient noise. It has disrupted traditional television and given rise to a world of video creators who make content catering to every imaginable niche interest.
For every YouTube video you have watched, there are hundreds of millions you will never see.
Here’s a look back at some of the biggest moments in its history.
April 23, 2005
YouTube begins
The first video uploaded on YouTube is titled Me at the zoo, and it shows one of the platform’s founders Jawed Karim admiring the elephants at the San Diego Zoo, US. Karim founded YouTube in February 2005 with Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, but left the venture in 2006.
Dec. 17, 2005
Lazy Sunday
The Saturday Night Live music video Lazy Sunday was perhaps the first YouTube video to go viral. The video, featuring cast members Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg rapping about cupcakes and movie snacks, was uploaded by fans after it aired on December 17, 2005. The spread of bootleg clips prompted NBC Universal to ask YouTube to remove the clip and other NBC footage for copyright reasons in February 2006.
Oct. 9, 2006
Google buys YouTube
YouTube swiftly became a home for viral hits, which in 2006 included Flea Market Montgomery, Charlie the Unicorn and Evolution of Dance.
Viacom, Microsoft and Yahoo expressed interest in buying YouTube, attracted by its growing audience. In October 2006, Google announced that it was acquiring the platform for $1.65 billion.
Dec. 21, 2012
Gangnam Style
Psy, a South Korean singer and rapper, released a music video for his song Gangnam Style in July 2012, and by the end of that year it had become the first video on the Internet to reach 1 billion views. In 2022, Psy told The New York Times that the song’s success haunted him.
“What was so special about that one song?” Psy said. “I still don’t know, to this day.”
2015
Unboxing
A popular YouTube genre is unboxing, which features people taking cellphones, makeup, vacuum cleaners and other products out of their packaging and describing them in clinical detail.
One of the most successful creators of unboxing videos is Marques Brownlee. He has unboxed an original, sealed iPhone, a PlayStation 5 and AirPods Max headphones. After years of reviewing technology for a growing audience, he graduated from college and became a full-time YouTube creator in May 2015. Today, he has 19.9 million subscribers and is a respected voice on consumer technology.
August 2018
Testing free speech
Like all social media platforms, YouTube has been in a constant struggle to determine what content it will allow. In 2018, it joined several other companies in removing most posts and videos from the Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his website, Infowars. Other prominent voices who have been restricted on the platform include President Donald Trump and Andrew Tate, an influencer known for his misogynistic views. (YouTube reversed its suspension of Trump in March 2023.)
Feb. 9, 2021
‘I’m not a cat’
Countless video call gaffes were lost to history during the coronavirus pandemic. One that was preserved featured a Texas lawyer Rod Ponton, who could not figure out how to turn off a Zoom filter that made him look like a grey cat with sad eyes when he joined a virtual hearing in civil forfeiture case. “I’m here live,” Ponton told the court. “I’m not a cat.”
Ponton has since embraced his brush with Internet fame. “It did let everybody have a moment of humour and a moment of sanity during the dark days of the pandemic,” he told the Times this year. “I’m glad it happened, even at my expense.”
Nov. 24, 2021
MrBeast’s masterpiece
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, created a YouTube account when he was in middle school, in 2012. He eventually found success with a video format that involved giving money to people in need, and he has for years been one of the most popular creators on the platform. His most popular video is $456,000 Squid Game In Real Life! from November 2021.
2023
Watch this podcast
Podcasts, once an audio-only medium, are now frequently recorded on video and posted on YouTube.
In the final quarter of 2023, 16of the top 30 podcasts were available as filmed videos, according toa Times analysis of data published by Edison Research. In the same period two years earlier, seven of the top30 podcasts were available as filmed videos.
April 11, 2024
Conan melts
Hot Ones, the interview show in which guests sample increasingly spicy hot sauces on chicken (or vegan) wings, had several hit episodes by the time talk show host and comedian Conan O’Brien, a fixture of traditional US television, made an appearance.
His unhinged performance — he appears to come unglued as he swigs sauce straight from the bottle — had “Conan O’Brien” trending online for days. “Many of my friends went online and thought I died,” he said.
Chicken-based interview shows are now a recognised stop on the celebrity PR circuit, with Chicken Shop Date, hosted by Amelia Dimoldenberg, producing its own set of viral moments.
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