From its humble beginnings in 2005 to becoming the world's second-largest search engine, YouTube's 20-year journey transformed how we create, consume, and share content.

YouTube's story begins not with grand ambitions of digital revolution, but with a simple dinner party in San Francisco. In February 2005, three former PayPal employees—Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley—found themselves discussing the difficulty of sharing video content online. At a time when email attachments had strict size limits and dedicated video platforms were nonexistent, they recognised a significant gap in internet services.

Initially conceived as a video site with the slogan ‘Tune In, Hook Up,’ the concept quickly pivoted when early user tests revealed a more fundamental need: a platform where anyone could easily upload and share videos. On April 23, 2005, Karim uploaded the platform's first video titled ‘Me at the Zoo’—an 18-second clip of himself at San Diego Zoo that would become an important artifact in internet history.