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YouTube's first video, 'Me at the zoo', was uploaded on 23 April 2005. In 19 seconds, co-founder Jawed Karim stands in front of the elephants at San Diego Zoo and remarks on how long their trunks are.

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The story behind the card

YouTube had been founded that February by three former PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. Karim has said the idea came from being unable to find video clips online of two big news events of 2004: the Super Bowl half-time show controversy and the Indian Ocean tsunami. The zoo clip was filmed by his school friend Yakov Lapitsky and uploaded at 8.31 in the evening, California time. Google bought YouTube for 1.65 billion US dollars in November 2006. By 2019 more than 500 hours of video were being uploaded every minute, and 'Me at the zoo' itself has passed 400 million views.

Türkçe oku
YouTube'un ilk videosu “Me at the zoo” (Hayvanat bahçesinde ben), 23 Nisan 2005'te yüklendi. 19 saniyelik videoda kurucu ortak Jawed Karim, San Diego Hayvanat Bahçesi'nde fillerin önünde durup hortumlarının ne kadar uzun olduğundan söz eder.

YouTube'u aynı yılın şubat ayında PayPal'in eski çalışanları Chad Hurley, Steve Chen ve Jawed Karim kurmuştu. Karim'in anlattığına göre fikir, 2004'ün iki büyük olayının, Super Bowl devre arası gösterisindeki skandalın ve Hint Okyanusu tsunamisinin videolarını internette bulamamasından doğdu. Hayvanat bahçesi videosunu Karim'in okul arkadaşı Yakov Lapitsky çekti; video Kaliforniya saatiyle 20.31'de yüklendi. Google, YouTube'u Kasım 2006'da 1,65 milyar dolara satın aldı. 2019'da siteye her dakika 500 saatten fazla video yükleniyordu; “Me at the zoo” da bugüne kadar 400 milyondan fazla kez izlendi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Me at the zoo
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