The Story Behind YouTube’s History as a Dating Site
“OK, forget the dating aspect, let’s just open it up to any video”

It was soon clear that the dating idea perhaps wasn’t going to work.

This is where the team decided to open it up to every video instead of keeping it to a niche. Youtube was about to break the age-old rule of sticking to a niche early into their venture.

By breaking this rule, Youtube uploaded its first official video in April 2005 onto the platform during its private beta, Karim’s Me At The Zoo (yes, the video is still up!).

Within a month, Youtube launched its beta version, and the website attracted 30 000 viewers a day, and by half a year, over two million users were using the site daily.

During late 2005, Sequoia Capital invested 3.5 million dollars into Youtube’s Series A. Sequoia partner Roelof Botha had worked at Paypal with the cofounders and learned about the platform after using it to upload honeymoon and wedding videos.

In October 2005, the platform saw its biggest viral video hit one million views. The video was a Nike ad featuring Ronaldinho (see below) receiving his pair of ‘Golden Boots.’ This was the first of many viral videos to hit millions of views.

The Virality Of Youtube

By the end of its first year, Youtube was receiving around 25 million views daily.

One of the biggest reasons for Youtube’s success and subsequent acquisition of Google was its ability to be a virality magnet. Videos posted on the platform could go viral for many reasons, from successful ads to a simple one minute clip of a baby biting someone else’s finger.

In late 2006, Youtube was acquired by Google for 1.65 billion dollars, and the company has since skyrocketed. Today over 2 billion users visit the site every month, and remain the second most used social platform globally.

Youtube has kickstarted the careers of many superstars of the video platform, including Pewdiepie, Michelle Phan, Psy, and more. Without the platform, many wouldn’t have had the chance to chase their passions.

Today Youtube has evolved from helping showcase amateur videos to original content, licensed by singers, bloggers, and more. It has since grown from just collecting ad revenue to a full-fledged streaming platform as well as a subscription service.
['Richard Liu']
['Technology', 'Marketing', 'Social Media', 'YouTube', 'Business']