It’s hard to imagine a time without the internet, computers, or social media being at our fingertips but that time did exist. I’m sure many of you can recall such a time but the younger generation may not know a life outside of the internet and the modern commodities we have today.
One of those commodities is YouTube, the worldwide video platform that was launched back in 2005. Since then it has taken the world by storm and expanded at an exponential rate but how did such a massive platform come to be?
To understand this, we need to go back to the birth of the internet itself. The internet was first known as The World Wide Web and it went live to the public on August 6th, 1991. Interestingly, the launch of the internet seemed to go under the radar for many since computers and connectivity were not commonplace and people had very little knowledge of how this new technology worked.
As time went on newer and better software was being developed and released, software like Windows 95, an iconic software program for its introduction of Internet Explorer. Though rudimentary by today’s standards it was a revolutionary piece of technology at the time for its ability to access information and increase productivity.
As people began to catch on to what the internet was, so did other companies and developers. The likes of Amazon, Netflix, and Google also wanted a part in the internet craze with their beginnings in the late 90s.
By the year 2000, according to the US Census Bureau, 94 million people had internet access, which is about every 2 out of 5 households. The internet quickly became a place to search for information but also to share it.
In 2005, three former PayPal employees, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim had an idea for a platform where people could share their home videos and so, on February 14, 2005, YouTube was registered and two months later the site opened on a limited basis attracting around 30,000 visitors per day. It officially launched on December 15, 2005, with more than 2 million views per day. The numbers began to grow and by the summer of 2006 YouTube had more than 100 million playbacks per day.
With so many people watching videos and even more uploading daily, YouTube began to run into internet traffic problems which subsequentially led them to invest their financial resources in new computer equipment and broadband internet connections.
Additionally, they also had to spend more of their resources for potential litigation for copyright infringement since YouTube at the time did not have the uploading restrictions it does today.
Without a way to make a profit from having so many viewers and in order to keep the site going, YouTube then started looking for a buyer.
Then, in November of 2006 Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. Operations continued as before though Google managed to negotiate with entertainment companies to allow copyrighted material on their site.
Since then, YouTube has gone on to provide several different services like YouTube TV, ad-free listening, watching movies, and more. At its core, however, YouTube continues to be the video-sharing platform it was back in 2005; but it has also evolved into so much more than just a place where we can share our home videos.
It is accessible to anyone, anywhere at any time which is why it is so appealing to many; content creators and viewers alike. The scope for content is virtually limitless, go ahead, create an account to save your favorite YouTube videos or if you’re feeling a little braver upload your own video. Teach someone how to do something, inspire the uninspired and become the next biggest influencer out there. Besides, what is there to lose? There is nothing worse than living in regret and missing out on the opportunity.
