Today, there are more than 14 billion videos on YouTube. Nearly four million new videos are uploaded daily. While YouTube is now a ubiquitous social media platform and video-sharing website, it was once new. On April 23, 2005, the very first YouTube video was uploaded. The person who made this video became the first YouTuber.
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Me at the Zoo
In February 2005, the “YouTube.com” domain name was activated. Two months later, video uploading functionality was added to the website. YouTube’s inaugural video was “Me at the Zoo”, which was uploaded by co-founder Jawed Karim. By uploading this video, Karim became the first YouTuber.
“Me at the Zoo” became highly popular and has been viewed more than 360 million times as of January 2025. It’s a short, 19-second video that features Karim standing in front of a couple of elephants. He says, in front of the elephants, “The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks. And that’s, that’s cool.” The full video was filmed at the San Diego Zoo, California. During the video, Jawed Karim mentions that the elephants have long trunks. To this day, this is the only video on Karim’s channel, which has accumulated over 3 million subscribers.
You can watch the first-ever YouTube video here:
The Video’s Lasting Impact
While “Me at the Zoo” may seem unremarkable by today’s standards, it set the template for what YouTube would become. The video’s casual, unscripted nature established the foundation for user-generated content that would define the platform. Multiple publications have noted that the video embodies YouTube as a whole—a place where anyone can share authentic moments from their daily lives without professional equipment or production studios.
As the first video uploaded to YouTube, “Me at the Zoo” is also recognized as the first YouTube vlog. The format Karim used, speaking directly to the camera about something ordinary, became the blueprint for millions of content creators who followed. This simple 19-second clip helped democratize content creation, proving that you didn’t need to be a media professional to share your voice with the world.
The video has achieved cultural milestone status in internet history. It represents the exact moment when video sharing became accessible to everyone, marking a fundamental shift in how people communicate and consume media online. What started as Karim filming himself at a zoo would spark a platform that now hosts over 14 billion videos and fundamentally changed entertainment, education, and digital marketing.
YouTube Co-Founder Jawed Karim
Jawed Karim is an American internet entrepreneur and software engineer. After Karim graduated from the University of Illinois, he started working at PayPal. During his time at PayPal, Karim met Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, his fellow co-founders of YouTube. They would work on YouTube for several years before it was officially launched in 2005. Jawed Karim developed many aspects of YouTube, which include the site’s anti-fraud system that monitors everything in real-time.
Life After YouTube
After becoming the first YouTuber with the April 23, 2005 upload of “Me at the Zoo”, Jawed Karim would go on to be an advisor to the video-sharing platform as he attended Stanford University. When the site was made in February 2005, Karim decided that he would focus on his studies instead of being a full-time YouTube employee. Because of this agreement, Karim took a significantly lower share of the platform than Chen and Hurley.
After YouTube, Karim founded YVentures, a venture capital firm, alongside Yakov Lapitsky. The firm has invested in numerous startups, including an early investment in Airbnb.
When Google bought YouTube in 2006, Karim received more than 137,000 shares of stock, which was worth about $64 million at the time. When Google bought YouTube in 2006, Karim received more than 137,000 shares of stock, which was worth about $64 million at the time. Today, Jawed Karim has a net worth of over $300 million.
Using His Platform for Change
Over the years, Jawed Karim has maintained an interesting relationship with his historic video. He’s used the description of “Me at the Zoo” as a public platform to criticize significant changes Google has made to YouTube. This has turned the first-ever YouTube video into an ongoing commentary on the platform’s evolution.
In 2013, when Google required YouTube users to link their accounts with Google+ to comment on videos, Karim updated the video description with a blunt message: “why the fuck do i need a google+ account to comment on a video?” The protest from YouTube’s co-founder drew significant attention and highlighted user frustrations with the forced integration.
More recently, in 2021, when YouTube removed the public dislike count from videos, Karim again updated the description to express his disapproval of the decision. These periodic updates have transformed “Me at the Zoo” from a simple historical artifact into an active voice in YouTube’s ongoing development. Karim’s willingness to publicly challenge the platform he helped create demonstrates his continued investment in maintaining YouTube’s original user-first philosophy.
Conclusion
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