Founded
YouTube is created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who met as employees at Paypal:
When we registered the YouTube domain on February 14, 2005, we set out to create a place where anyone with a video camera and an Internet connection could share a story with the world.
First video
Jawad Karim, co-founder of YouTube, uploads the first video to the site. The video features him in front of the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo.
Sequoia invests $3.5 million
0 CommentsSequoia Capital invests $3.5 million into YouTube:
We are very excited to be involved with YouTube at a time when consumers are poised to benefit from all the consumer electronics available. The demand for user-generated content continues to grow exponentially. We’ve already seen user-generated content blossom in text through blogging, in photographs through services like Flickr and Shutterfly, and in audio through podcasting. YouTube is pioneering the next wave to become Internet’s premier video service.
NBC partnership
NBC agrees to allow certain clips of its shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show to be shown on YouTube. Before this point, NBC asks that any videos with material they own be removed. Youtube co-founder Chad Hurley says:
We are delighted to work with NBC on an official basis. Bringing more entertaining and exclusive content to YouTube helps further our goal of providing the best video entertainment experience on the Internet.
Lonelygirl15 exposed
YouTube user Lonelygirl15 is exposed as a hoax. She makes video blogs that initially feature life as a typical American teenager but later involve a cult called the Order which is targeting her. She becomes the most subscribed channel on YouTube until it is shown that she is an actress working for the Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills. A post is released on her website:
Right now, the biggest mystery of Lonelygirl15 is “who is she?” We think this is an oversimplification. Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us.
Google buys YouTube
Google has recently purchased a majority (more than 50%) of YouTube for $1.65 billion. All 67 of YouTube’s employees kept their positions. Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, says:
I’m confident that with this partnership we will have the flexibility and resources needed to pursue our goal of building the next-generation platform for serving media worldwide.
YouTube Awards
YouTube announces a feature called the YouTube Awards to recognize the best videos uploaded in 2006. Users can vote for their favorite videos and the winners will receive a trophy and recognition for their videos. Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing at YouTube, says it is unclear whether this will be an annual event or not:
We want to see how the community responds to it, but we can see this being something that grows as we continue to grow and becomes a bigger and more exciting event in the future.
Localized sites
0 CommentsYouTube launches versions of its site for the UK, Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the US. At launch, the only difference in these versions of the website is that the user interface is translated:
We wanted to clear up a misconception about the nine localized sites we launched on June 19: the content has not been “broken down” by region. All of your videos are available to everyone, no matter which site you set as your default. So even if you choose a particular country as your preference, the content available to you is still the same.
Democratic CNN-YouTube Debate
CNN airs a debate featuring questions submitted on YouTube to Democratic candidates for the 2008 presidential election. The show pulls the highest viewership for a debate among 18-34 year olds in history, with 2.6 million viewers total.
China ban
0 CommentsChina blocks YouTube from being accessed by anyone in the country. No reason is given for the ban, but it may be due to 17th Communist Party Congress which is taking place, or the fact that YouTube recently launched a Chinese-language version of the site.
Republican CNN-YouTube Debate
CNN hosts a debate in St. Petersburg, Florida between eight Republican presidential candidates. The questions posed to the candidates are submitted by people to YouTube, and the event is moderated by Anderson Cooper.
Film rentals
0 CommentsYouTube launches a film rental feature on the website. Only five independent films, The Cove, Bass Ackwards, One Too Many Mornings, Homewrecker and Children of Invention, are available for rental at launch, but YouTube says more are coming soon:
A small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries, including health and education, will be made available in the weeks ahead.
Hurley takes advisory role
Hurley steps down as chief executive to take an advisory role. He is replaced by Salar Kamangar, former vice-president of web applications at Google and co-founder of Adwords.
Right now I am in the process of transitioning into the role of adviser, stepping down, still being involved in the company, but it’s given me an opportunity to work on new projects.
Sponsored channels
YouTube announces a program that will pay content creators to create new series for the site. They invest $100 million in the project and recruit celebrities like Madonna, Shaquille O’Neal, and Ashton Kutcher to join the project:
Our goal with this channels expansion, along with the grants and educational programs we’ve launched in the past year, is to bring an even broader range of entertainment to YouTube, giving you more reasons to keep coming back again and again.
The first of these new original channels will appear on YouTube starting next month and will continue over the next year.
Death reel
Bean reacts in an interview about the Youtube reel compiled from his propensity to die onscreen, a phenomenon that has occurred more than 20 times. While he regrets that some of his characters had their screentime cut short,
some of them are jobs that you don’t want to do any more.
On his favourite character death:
I like the Boromir death, yeah, that’s a good one. A good, slow, heroic death.
One billion views
The Yogscast becomes the first YouTube channel in the UK to reach one billion total video views.
Innocence of Muslims
0 0 Mark Devlin Mark Devlin2012-07-02 21:58:392014-06-23 02:52:06Innocence of Muslims
Presidential debate livestream
YouTube partners with ABC News to livestream three presidential and one vice-presidential debates for free. The YouTube livestream also features commentary from Al Jazeera English, BuzzFeed, Larry King, New York Times, YouTuber Phil DeFranco, Univision and the Wall Street Journal.
2012 Golden Joystick
The Yogscast wins the 2012 Golden Joystick award in the Youtube Gamer of the Year category. The award is decided by votes on the Golden Joystick website.
Held onto Yogscast golden joystick for so long that the gold started wearing off. Dear god. pic.twitter.com/2PHpqdYJ
— S ❗ M ⭕ N (@SimonHoneydew) October 27, 2012
Gangnam Style one billion views
Gangnam Style becomes the first video on YouTube to hit one billion views. YouTube celebrates by putting a small dancing cartoon of Psy next to the view count. Psy says:
In 2012, I experienced so many things; it’s been a tremendous year, but to accomplish this, it’s really something that stands out. Because it all began with YouTube, and to have [the video] reach 1 billion views … I don’t think even I can break that record!
