In the early 2000s, the Internet was a rapidly changing digital frontier; one crucial digital puzzle piece was still missing in the way of an easy, user-friendly manner to share and view videos over the Internet. This angering gap in the market was witnessed by Jawed Karim, a young engineer then working with PayPal, and that eventually led to the creation of what would turn out to be a cultural phenomenon: YouTube.
The spark to create YouTube can be traced back to one moment, 2004: that infamous Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” which occured during the Super Bowl halftime show. The incident created huge media coverage, but when Karim tried to find a clip of it online, it was like hitting a brick wall. Available platforms were hard to use, and finding the video was next to impossible. This frustration planted the seed for an idea that would change the face of the internet.
Karim thought to create a venue that would enable users to share and view videos with ease, as opposed to the tattered and fragmented pieces of video uploading options available at the time. The idea hung until February 2005, when Karim felt it was high time to act on his suspicions. He sent an email to two former colleagues from PayPal, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, which would change the course of Internet history.
On the night of February 13, 2005, Karim sent an e-mail to Hurley and Chen with the subject “video idea”. Although brief, the e-mail was urgent and excited. Being careful not to say too much on what he considered to be an insecure channel of communication, he made it clear that he thought the concept had huge potential.
“I just talked to both of you on the phone. I’m 100% convinced that this can be HUGE if executed right. It’s the kind of thing that will be picked up by MTV and Maxim straight away,”
Karim said. He made a big deal about timing, writing that digital cameras that could take video were getting cheaper and more popular all the time. He envisioned a site with only videos-one that would succeed not because it was comprehensive but because it was simple and narrowly focused.
That email was even good enough to convince Hurley and Chen to participate in the venture along with Karim. Then, with the codename “Video,” it began working on the project inside a garage-a pretty modestly scaled beginning that would swell into a global behemoth.
YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim’s first email regarding YouTube’s idea is going viral PIC.TWITTER.COM/DVKNCMNDUR
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) SEPTEMBER 3, 2024
That was anything but glamorous in the early days of YouTube. Operating from a garage that was a converted office, there were lots of challenges from finding funding to acquiring users. But they didn’t give up, knowing full well that they were on to something huge.
It would soon pay off: less than a year later, at the end of 2005, YouTube was receiving upwards of 8 million views every day. The site, simple and accessible, proved an immediate hit, spreading not just rapidly but virally.
The explosion in popularity was nothing short of phenomenal. By 2006, the site was among the fastest-growing websites on the internet, with upwards of 65,000 new videos uploaded each and every day. This unprecedented growth did not go unnoticed. In November 2006, just 18 months after YouTube’s creation, Google acquired the company for an astonishing $1.65 billion in stock.
This was the moment that marked not only the founders themselves but the entire internet. Despite not being profitable in the time of sale, in 2006 alone, YouTube used more bandwidth than the entire internet in 2000. There was no more doubt that YouTube was well on its way to one of the cornerstones of the digital world.
Karim’s first email and, later, the formation of YouTube made a dent in this world that would last for generations to come in culture. YouTube democratized content creation, allowing everybody who had an access point to the internet to share their voice and creativity with the world. This website channelled a new dimension to entertainment, learning, and social interchange that utterly changed our media consumption habit.
Youtube Co-Founder Jawed Karim posted the first video on the platform in 2005 PIC.TWITTER.COM/OLCJBQ9ZX8
— Crazy Moments (@Crazymoments01) SEPTEMBER 3, 2024
From viral videos to educational content, YouTube has appeared in our lives as part of our daily dose. It gave creators from each and every kind of background so much power that it turned the average man into a global influencer and pulled up traditional media from its roots. And while the platform continues to evolve, in its core mission, the core remains just about providing space for anyone to tell their story.
In his rearview mirror, Karim’s email was so much more than a business proposal; it became the harbinger of a cultural revolution. Today, YouTube stands as proof that an idea can make a change in this world with lots of passion and precision in execution.