Happy Birthday YouTube – 10 years of videos, mostly rubbish, but some solid gold in there

A little over 10 years ago Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim got together to start a little company. It was called YouTube. That was February 2005. But it wasn’t until April 2005 their little idea really came to life. If the company’s foundation date is conception, then the first upload is surely the birth – so April 23 is YouTube’s Birthday and this year’s the big double digits.

It wasn’t until May 2005 they opened the site for some “beta” testing, then a public launch in November – but this video will forever be significant:

Not because it’s one of the worst videos on the internet, but because it is the first video uploaded to YouTube.

Interestingly Jawed never uploaded another video on that account – perhaps after the Google acquisition and account integration it all got too complex:)  In 2006 Google snapped up the site for $1.6 billion – pocket change in today’s acquisition numbers, and you’d have to say – one of Google’s best.

The most watched video on YouTube of all time:

Yep, Psy – Gangnam Style. Over 2 Billion views. Amazing.

For me, the first recollection I have of a viral video was the Evolution of Dance:

While for many, YouTube is all about dashcam videos, music videos and of course:

Happy Birthday YouTube.

(yes yes, I know it’s not YouTube’s birthday YET in America, but we’re here to Celebrate for them on the correct date!)