Watch the First Ever YouTube Video ‘Me at the Zoo’

YouTube is one of the most revolutionary inventions of the 21st century.

Created one year after Facebook (February of 2004), which followed MySpace (August 2003), the American global online video sharing and social media platform has captured the world by sharing moments captured in it. Whether its music videos, feature films, news coverage, live streams, etc., all of us have utilized YouTube for work, information, or entertainment.

Three former employees of PayPal - Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim - registered YouTube on February 14, 2005, as they sought to allow people to share their "home videos," points out britannica.com. The company grew exponentially as views just climbed higher and higher, surpassing more than 25 million views and 25 million videos available roughly a year later.

YouTube even caught Google's eye as the American search engine company launched their own video service, Google Video, which failed in comparison to the emerging giant. You know the phrase, "If you can't beat them, join them"? Well, Google decided to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock in November 2006, according to britannica.com. That was huge for YouTube in many ways, one of them being that it allowed for copyrighted video material to air on YouTube as Google was able to limit YouTube's appearances in the courtroom due to lawsuits. That led to movies and television shows appearing on YouTube with advertisements running during them.

The First Ever YouTube Video Was Filmed at the San Diego Zoo

It was decided that the San Diego Zoo would be where the first YouTube video would be filmed. Nearly nine hours from company headquarters in San Bruno, California, 25-year-old co-founder Karim posted a short video of himself in front of two elephants at the zoo. It was nothing extravagant or quote-worthy but historical nonetheless.

The video was posted on April 23, 2005, and it is called "Me at the zoo."

That's it. Karim talking about the elephants' long trunks. Currently, the video has over 263,000,000 views. The video is broken down into three Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:05 The cool thing

00:17 End

Of the over 11,000,000 comments made on the video you will see the appreciation from the San Diego Zoo pinned at the top:

We're so honored that the first ever YouTube video was filmed here!

A cool moment in history that, in the relatively short time since, has revolutionized our modern digital age.