Watch YouTube's first-ever video as bizarre 19-second clip with 355MILLION views uploaded 20 years ago today
YOUTUBE'S first-ever video was uploaded 20 years ago today: a 19-second clip with more than 355 million views.
The snippet of footage dates back to YouTube 's April 23, 2005 launch.
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It's called "Me at the zoo" and it was uploaded by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim.
This early clip is a now seen as an iconic part of the internet's history – and marks the beginning of one of the most popular websites of all time.
These days, YouTube is a household name, and is owned by tech giant Google.
But in 2005, it was just a hopeful project dreamed up by three former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Karim (who uploaded that first clip).
In the video, we see Karim posing in front of a pair of elephants.
He's being recorded by his high school pal Kayov Lapitsky at California 's San Diego Zoo.
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Karim worked with YouTube as an informal adviser, and retained a small share in the site.
When it was snapped up by Google in 2006, Karim is believed to have received around $64 million in share value.
He went on to launch a venture fund in 2008, which became an early investor in Airbnb in 2009.
In 2013, Karim used his "Me at the zoo" video to criticise Google publicly.
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It was in response to a policy change that forced YouTube users to create a Google+ account if they wanted to post comments on videos.
Karim changed the video description on the clip to: "I can't comment here anymore, since I don't want a Google+ account."
Google eventually backed down on the decision, and ultimately killed off Google+ in 2019.
In November 2021, Karim updated his video description again with the note: "When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube."
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As of today, Karim's video description includes a warning about how "microplastics are accumulating in human brains at an alarming rate".
That change was made back in February 2025.
VIEW-TIFUL!
Today, YouTube is ranked as the second-most-visited site in the world behind Google's main search engine.
It attracts billions of users every single month – with over a billion hours of videos watched per day.
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Google bought up the site all the way back in 2006 for $1.65 billion.
It's almost certainly worth far more today – with 2024 advertising and subscription revenue alone exceeding $50 billion.
YouTube started life as a website usually viewed in the web browser of a computer.
But now it's widely accessible, including on iPhones and Androids, smart TVs, games consoles, and even VR headsets.
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