New York, (EFE).- Two decades ago, on February 14, 2005, a new platform called YouTube with the aim of being used by ordinary people to share their home videos, but not even in their wildest dreams could its creators have imagined that the platform would revolutionise both the audiovisual and entertainment sectors.
The names behind this concept are Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, three former employees of the American e-commerce company PayPal.
The first Youtube video
The protagonist of the platform's first video, 'Me at the Zoo' It was Karim; in a clip of less than 20 seconds, the then twenty-something is seen in front of the elephant cage at the San Diego Zoo in California.
"The cool thing about elephants is that they have a very, very, very long trunk. That's great, and that's pretty much all I have to say," Karim explains in his video, which was uploaded on April 23, 2005 and now has more than 348 million views.
These figures already make video part of 'audiovisual history'.
There are already more than 14 billion videos on the platform (more than one and a half videos for every person on the planet), according to a study carried out by the University of Massachusetts (USA) last year.
This ocean of videos includes everything from popular 'How to...' tutorials - which explain how to change a light bulb, how to apply eyeliner or how to make a video tutorial - to music videos and covers - amateur YouTube videos were key in launching established artists such as Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran, among others, to stardom.
There is even room for blockbusters like those of YouTuber MrBeast, who three years ago recreated all the tests from the 'Squid Game' series in a video that has more than 742 million views.
Youtuber, a profession
The importance of this platform has grown so much that it has given rise to a new professional category: that of full-time content creator, a role that has become one of the most popular goals among young people. This job even has its own name: 'youtuber'.
Nearly 30% of children aged 8 to 12 said YouTube was their top career choice, more than three times as many as astronauts, according to a 2019 global survey by Harris Poll and toymaker Lego.
The YouTuber with the most followers - more than 360 million, to be exact - is Jimmy Donaldson, better known by his pseudonym MrBeast, a 26-year-old who has been uploading videos since 2016.
To date, he has uploaded almost 850 videos, the latest of which are multi-million dollar blockbusters.
Donaldson told Time magazine in 2024 that his channel generates between $600 and $700 million a year. “Each video generates a couple million in ad revenue, a couple million in brand deals,” the YouTuber said.
Although the most popular accounts in the world tend to be American, India also has a lot of influence on the platform. The second channel with the most subscribers - 286 million - is T-Series, which is a record company and film producer from that country.
The new rivals
Internet search leader Google bought the startup YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. At the time, the platform was not yet profitable and the purchase was Google's most expensive in its first eight years of history.
"This is the next step in the evolution of the Internet," Google's then-CEO Eric Schmidt said after the deal.
Since then, new platforms have emerged that are increasingly overshadowing YouTube, such as the streaming service Twitch - which belongs to the giant Amazon - or the social networks Instagram - now owned by Meta - and TikTok - from the Chinese company ByteDance, whose future in the US is uncertain.
Sarah Yanez-Richards
