The First YouTube Video Was Uploaded 10 Years Ago Today
On April 23, 2005, at 8:27 p.m., YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the first YouTube video “Me at the zoo.” Shot by high school friend Yakov Lapitsky (who went on to become an engineering professor), it shows Karim talking about how cool elephants’ trunks are. The nearly 20-second clip has been viewed nearly 20 million times. Ten years later, YouTube is “the most valuable storytelling outlet our planet has ever seen” and its CEO Susan Wojcicki is “the visionary behind YouTube’s next evolution,” as Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer writes in this year’s TIME 100 issue, which recognizes Wojcicki as a “Titan” in the tech industry.