In this photo illustration, the YouTube website is displayed on October 10, 2006, following Google’s $1.65 billion acquisition of the platform. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Europe
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Europe
Twenty years ago, three former PayPal employees launched YouTube.com, originally intended as a dating website with the slogan “Tune In, Hook Up.”
The co-founders—Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim—struggled to attract users, so they created YouTube’s first video themselves. The clip, titled “Me at the zoo,” featured Karim at the San Diego Zoo.
“Me at the zoo” is a YouTube video uploaded on