It’s hard to imagine a world without YouTube – how else would we get our daily fix of cute cat and funny doggo videos?
Despite the video sharing site having become a mainstay of our daily browsing habits, however, the now Google-owned platform is still surprisingly young.
Today, April 24, actually marks just 12 years since the very first video was uploaded to YouTube.
The first video was uploaded on the west coast of America at 12 seconds past 8:27pm PDT on April 23, that was 3:27am UTC on April 24.
The video, which we’ve got to say isn’t exactly a classic, was an 18-second clip entitled “Me at the Zoo” and features YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim.
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Despite showing Karim blandly chatting about how it’s cool that elephants have long trunks – we told you it wasn’t video gold – the clip, shot by his friend Yakov Lapitsky, has racked up 37 million views to date.
Having taken on cultural significant, the video marks the founding footage for what has become one of the world’s biggest websites.
Now receiving more daily views than every website in the world bar Google and Facebook, YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006 in a deal worth $1.65 billion.
Currently 300 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, with the site having recently started offering 4K and 360-degree VR-friendly video streams.
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What was the first video you watched on YouTube? Let us know below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
