Some media companies like Vevo, BBC, CBS, and Hulu maintain a YouTube partnership program so that YouTube materials can be streamed from their sites. YouTube visitors can watch unlimited videos. However, uploading is limited to registered users only. Videos with offensive contents can be viewed only by the registered users provided they are 18 years old or older.
YouTube is headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was founded by former PayPal employees Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. In 2005, Chen and Hurley attended a party where they took videos. They wanted to share the videos with those who were at the party but had difficulty doing it. Karim, who wasn’t at the party, denied that the party occurred. Wanting to prove that the party indeed took place at Chen’s San Francisco apartment, the idea of YouTube was born.
But according to Karim, YouTube’s inspiration was Janet Jackson’s performance at the 2004 Super Bowl. While performing, it was reported that Jackson accidentally exposed her breasts. Karim wanted to see what happened but a video clip of the incident was nowhere to be found online; hence, the idea of video sharing.
During its startup period, YouTube was funded by Sequoia Capital which poured in $11.5 million. The site’s domain – www.youtube.com – was activated in April 2005. The website went into extensive development over the next few months.
Me at the Zoo was the first video clip that went live at YouTube. It was authored by Karim himself and was taken at San Diego Zoo.
At present, YouTube accommodates close to 60 hours of videos every minute. About 75% of these materials are uploaded by users outside the US. Each month, YouTube has more than 800 million unique visitors each month.