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It is the 10th anniversary of YouTube. We celebrate with our favorite videos.
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April 23 is the 10th anniversary of the day the first-ever YouTube video was posted.
It is hard to imagine life before YouTube. In just a decade it seems like everything that ever happened has been memorialized in a two-minute video on YouTube. I'm sure that if it isn't there already, soon we'll have real-time footage of the big bang up for people to comment on.
You have to give credit to the first person to upload a video, the YouTube's co-founder Jawed Karim. His video is an entirely mundane 19-second clip of him realizing elephants have long noses.
This is strangely visionary. He didn't think he needed the Citizen Kane of home movies. He didn't wait until he had the best elephant video ever. He just posted. And honestly, that set the right tone for YouTube, where literally anything goes, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Ten years later, YouTube has a billion users. They upload 300 hours of video per minute, watch millions of hours of it per day, and generate billions of views. YouTube also brings our world a little bit closer together. On average, 60% of views of a given YouTube video come from outside the poster's home country.
In honor of the 10th anniversary, I thought I'd post 10 of my favorite -- yet clean -- YouTube videos of all time. You've probably seen most, if not all, of them. But let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?
Of course, it wouldn't be YouTube if we didn't start with an animal video. This might be the king of dog videos, from 2008:
The Masters of the Universe demand you watch this video from May of 2010:
More animals with this sloth from 2011. And check out this bonus video of the sloth's perspective on this:
Didn't believe me when I said they have everything on YouTube? Here is the 1985 Face-Pulling World Championship, posted in 2009:
It isn't all fun and games. Sometimes someone offers us something beautiful and profound. Like this video of a girl growing up, one day at a time, from 2000 to 2014.
Or this truly beautiful display of artistry from Ukraine's Got Talent. How else would we have ever seen this?
You'll have to decide for yourself if it's art, but here's a video of an all-hologram, all-computerized rock star in Japan from 2012. I happen to love it, if only for its audacity:
We can't possibly leave out the level of truly great parody on YouTube -- most of which is not safe for work. This is perhaps the funniest safe-for-work one out there in the great genre of honest trailers:
OK, one more animal video. We just can't resist them. A rabbit taking a spa day from 2013:
I felt a need to post something from the anniversary week. Who better to post than head-nerd Neil deGrasse Tyson participating in a newish trend on YouTube -- reading mean tweets:
Yes, I skipped Keyboard Cat, David After The Dentist, Gangnam Style, and countless other YouTube favorites. There's no way I can get it all in with 10 videos. Plus, I wanted to leave some room for you guys. What are your favorites? Do you even like YouTube? Share with us in the comments, and happy anniversary to YouTube.
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David has been writing on business and technology for over 10 years and was most recently Managing Editor at Enterpriseefficiency.com. Before that he was an Assistant Editor at MIT Sloan Management Review, where he covered a wide range of business topics including IT, ... View Full Bio
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Angelfuego, User Rank: Ninja 4/27/2015 | 5:26:48 PM
Re: Is youtube making money?
@impactnow. True. People with various skills and talents have been discovered from YouTube, which caused their income to grow. Mindy from Cute Girls Hairstyles became a sensation with thanks to YouTube. Her twins even have a YouTube channel that has become a success. Mindy's husband quit his job to assist Mindy behind the scenes in her career, in which YouTube was the mainspring for her booming career. Music artists and make-up artists have been discovered on YouTube, which opened up doors for them. Sophia Grace was discovered online and wad called onto the Ellen Show several times. She has 2 singles out now.
impactnow, User Rank: Author 4/27/2015 | 12:11:30 PM
Re: Is youtube making money?
While it may not be making money, its making money for many companies and organizations that use it to educate consumers and promote thier goods and services! Love it!
Angelfuego, User Rank: Ninja 4/26/2015 | 6:57:29 PM
Re: 10 years already?
Happy Anniversary YouTube! Thanks for all of your "how to" videos. Thanks to YouTube! I learned how to make homemade lip gloss and crocheted flowers. I also learned how to make sock buns, waterfall braids, and nail designs. Thanks to YouTube, I learned how to remove bagworms off of evergreen trees and how to replace a front end on my Nissan Maxima. Thanks again YouTube!
nasimson, User Rank: Ninja 4/26/2015 | 12:17:24 AM
Is youtube making money?
After ten years of operation, millions of users and billions of hours of content, is youtube making money now? Or is it still being subsidized by Search business?
nasimson, User Rank: Ninja 4/25/2015 | 11:53:44 PM
10 years of restricting, blocking and unblocking !!!
Even at the time when its ten years old and there are million of useful educational and informative videos on youtube, the site is blocked in so many countries. More populous being: China, Pakistan and some content in Germany too.
Angelfuego, User Rank: Ninja 4/25/2015 | 2:22:10 PM
Re: 10 years already?
Wow, where did the time go?? I can't believe it's been that long. I did the math and realized 23 years ago, I was clueless about YouTube. It took me longer than most to discover YouTube, but I loved it ever since!
It's amazing that it's been 10 years already, but it does feel like Youtube has always been part of the online world at this point. It's bizarre to think back to pre-2005 era internet that didn't feature an easy place to watch and upload videos to.
I'm sure in 10 years we'll look back at now as a time without some other important web technology and wonder how we did without it.
progman2000, User Rank: Ninja 4/24/2015 | 6:01:42 AM
Re: Fun with YouTube
Thanks for not including Gangnam Style - and thanks for including the one of the girl growing up. That was cool, I plan on showing my 12yr old daughter, she will dig it (Neil deGrasse Tyson was way cool too).
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