YouTube has evolved from a dinner party lark 20 years ago into a modern lifestyle staple poised to overtake U.S. cable television in paid viewership.
PayPal colleagues Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim conceived YouTube in 2005, reportedly during a dinner party. The domain YouTube.com launched on Valentine's Day that year.
Video uploading capabilities were added on April 23, when Karim posted the first video, titled "Me at the Zoo." The 19-second clip showing Karim at the San Diego Zoo's elephant exhibit has garnered 348 million views.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.