Youtube founders – who they really are?

YouTube, the website we all know and love, was founded by three former PayPal employees who were just trying to figure out how to share a video of a dinner party. Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim couldn’t find a platform that wasn’t too complicated, so they decided to create their own. And thus, in 2005, YouTube was born with the tagline “Broadcast Yourself,” encouraging users to upload their own videos and share them with the world.

But little did they know, their brainchild would quickly gain popularity and in the first year alone, users uploaded 100 million videos! And in 2006, Google came knocking on their door with a whopping $1.65 billion offer to buy YouTube. The sale made Hurley, Chen, and Karim instant billionaires, but they decided to stick around and continue to make YouTube even better.

Hurley served as YouTube’s CEO until 2010, when he stepped down to focus on other projects, and Chen and Karim also left Google in the following years to pursue other ventures, but their legacy lives on. Today, YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users and more than 1 billion hours of video watched every day, becoming a vital source of information, entertainment and education.

But what’s even more impressive is that these three guys did all of this while keeping a good sense of humor, as Hurley is often quoted as saying, “Just because you’re in Silicon Valley, you don’t have to act like a robot.” And Chen, for his part, is known for his relatable quips such as “We never thought it would become what it became. We just wanted to make it easier to share videos.”

So the next time you’re watching a cat video or learning how to make a new recipe, take a moment to appreciate the three guys who made it all possible. And remember: YouTube is not just a website, it’s a way of life.