YouTube, which was founded on February 14, 2005, has become one of the most important platforms of the digital age. The video-sharing website, which was created by three former PayPal employees, quickly gained popularity and was eventually acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion.
The idea for YouTube came about when the founders, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, were having difficulty sharing a video from a dinner party they had attended. They realized that there was no easy way to share videos online, and thus decided to create a platform where users could upload and share videos.
The first video uploaded to YouTube was titled "Me at the zoo," and was uploaded by Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005. The video, which features Karim at the San Diego Zoo, has since garnered over 90 million views.
YouTube quickly gained popularity, and by December 2005, the website was averaging over 8 million views per day. In November 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion, and the website continued to grow under Google's ownership.
Today, YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users and is the second most visited website in the world after Google. The platform has also become a major source of income for content creators, with many YouTubers earning millions of dollars per year from advertising revenue and sponsorships.