YouTube marked its 10th anniversary on Thursday by sharing the first ever video that was posted on the site. The video sharing site, which has been owned by Google since 2006, is preparing a bigger celebration next month.
Posted by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, the video runs just 18 seconds and is called “Me at the Zoo.” Karim is just standing before a camera, pointing out how cool elephants are. That’s a pretty inauspicious start to what has become the most-used video sharing site on the web.
In 10 years, the video has accumulated just 21 million views. By comparison, the most-watched video in YouTube’s history, Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” took nearly three years to reach 2.3 billion views.
YouTube posted a link to “Me at the Zoo” on Facebook. The site is planning on a bigger celebration in May.
Despite being so popular with 1 billion viewers, the Wall Street Journal reported in February that the company still isn’t turning a profit. The site has also failed to become a hub for original content. It is also still struggling to figure out ways to get people to visit YouTube.com, rather than clicking on a shared video from elsewhere to get on the site.
Still, YouTube is here to stay, even as Facebook and Twitter add ways to directly post videos.
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screenshot from Jawed YouTube video