Youtube Founder – Who doesn’t know YouTube? A platform that broadcasts videos of various genres is very popular and rivals television. Some people don’t even mind if they don’t have a television at home, but they must have YouTube. Are you a regular YouTube user? Let’s get to know this platform deeper and get to know the founders.
YouTube trip
1. The Beginning of Youtube
YouTube was administratively registered for the first time to coincide with Valentine’s Day , namely on February 14, 2005. Whether this coincidence was intentional or not by the three founders who were former Paypal employees.
It was Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who initiated the founding of Youtube. At that time, they registered a shop in San Mateo, California as the official Youtube address. Their initial mission was to make YouTube a video-based online dating platform.
However, this desire did not run smoothly. Youtube is only visited by a handful of people and unfortunately they are not interested. The three young men advertised on an advertising platform called Craigslist. No kidding, Youtube promised to give 20 US dollars for anyone who wants to upload videos on its platform.
The uploaded videos are still related to online dating. Its contents must explain the partner desired by the uploader. Unfortunately, the lure is still not fruitful. Nobody is interested in Youtube.
This caused the three founders of Youtube to be confused. They evaluate Youtube. Where will Youtube be taken? This evaluation is the turning point for the company with the white arrow logo in this red box.
Youtube’s new policy is to open the door as wide as possible to anyone who wants to post any video. And the first video uploaded on this platform is a video of their co-founder , Jawed Karim, visiting the Diego Zoo. The 19-second video is titled Me at the Zoo .
In the video, Jawed Karim recounts what he saw. He said the uniqueness of the elephant is in its long trunk. Until now, you can still find the video on YouTube. The video was posted on April 23, 2005 by channel jawed and has been viewed 222 million times.
2. Youtube Speeds Up and Gets an Injection of Funds
In May 2005 launched the beta version. At that time, YouTube was founded as a company funded by wealthy individuals ( angel investors ). Six months later, the company received investment funds from Sequoia Capital’s venture capital of US$3.5 million. In this month, Youtube was officially announced.
Since changing its war strategy, Youtube has experienced a very significant spike. In January 2006 alone, video viewers on YouTube jumped to 25 million viewers. While in July 2006, this site has 65,000 videos uploaded every day and visited 100 million times in one day.
This positive growth prompted Sequoia and Artist Capital as a capital venture to disburse additional funds of $ 8 million for YouTube in April 2006. Youtube’s operations are getting better, the results are getting bigger. Youtube is getting unstoppable.
3. Bought Google
Youtube’s popularity has increased coupled with the emergence of various new problems. Youtube requires more computers and a more sophisticated broadband internet connection. The company is also facing problems with copyright claims.
Youtube also needs to maximize the commercialization of its products. These conditions accumulated and at a certain time, Steve Chen Hurley, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim were compelled to sell YouTube. This big decision will be a milestone for them and all of us.
In October 2006, the giant US technology company, Google Inc. bought youtube in stock for $1.65 billion. If converted to rupiah at this time, this value is equivalent to 23 trillion rupiah. This fantastic figure makes the transaction the second largest acquisition ever made by Google.
The Story of the Founders of Youtube
1. Chad Hurley
This man who was born on January 24, 1977 has the full name Chad Meredith Hurley. His father, Don, is a financial consultant. While his mother, Joann Hurley, is a teacher.
He grew up in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, United States. He is the second child of three brothers. His older sister is called Heather and his younger brother is named Brent.
Since childhood he showed a high interest in the world of art. This interest even tends to be extreme. He often spends his time studying painting, sculpting and designing.
However, this interest is slowly but surely shifting to the world of technology and business. This change in interest shifted his focus to building a business and getting involved in the world of technology.
Chad Hurley represented Twin Valley High School’s trail running program. In 1992 and 1994, he won the State CUP title. He completed his studies in art majoring in Graphic Design and Printmaking from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, United States of America.
After graduating from Indiana University, Chad applied for a job at a newly established company engaged in finance, namely Paypal. Chad got the first assignment to design the Paypal logo as proof of his portfolio. If you see the Paypal logo now, it’s a logo designed by Chad Hurley.
Personally, Chad is a smart and creative person. He learned many things about technology independently. His talent for managing a business is shown by his ability to commercialize his works of art.
Technological ability, sharp business acumen, and a well-honed artistic soul make for a beautiful combination for Chad. He took advantage of that potential to make money independently. When he was in college, he managed to sell services to build websites, games, and animation.
Chad is a friendly person. However, he is not easy to open up with many people. It’s more closed.
Chad is the man who became the first CEO of Youtube. After being purchased by Google, Chad acquired 694,087 shares of Google shares directly and an additional 41,232 shares. The number of shares was valued at $345.6 million at the close of trading on February 7, 2007.
In October 2010, he stepped down from his post as CEO of YouTube. Even though he stepped down as CEO, he stated that he was ready to commit to becoming an advisor to YouTube in the future. The leadership of Youtube is continued by Salar Kamangar.
Chad was reportedly the main investor for the US F1 team which was one of the members of the F1 car racing event in 2010. But unfortunately, the team eventually disbanded for no known reason. Chad reportedly still wants to be involved in the F1 industry through other teams.
Chad seems to be interested in investing in sports. He is reportedly the co-owner of the Major Soccer League (MLS) Football Club and the Los Angeles Football Club. Not only that, he also explored business in the world of basketball with one of the NBA league teams, the Golden State Warriors.
For his family life, he is married to Kathy Clark. She is the daughter of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jim Clark. Their marriage presented two children.
2. Steve Chen
Steve Shih Chen is one of the founders of Youtube who comes from Taipei, Taiwan. He is also the former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Youtube. The man who was born on August 25, 1978, was motivated to succeed after people predicted that he would never succeed.
He still remembers the event well. At the age of six, his mother took Chen to a fortune teller. Chen was bothered by the fortune-teller’s words and it kept ringing in his head.
He does not accept that his fate must be determined by someone else. Fate seemed to be on Chen’s side. When he was eight years old, his family emigrated to the United States.
He then attended middle school at John Hersey High School, moving on to the Illinois Math and Science Academy. For higher education, he decided to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in computer science.
After graduating from the University of Illinois, Chen worked at Paypal. Yes, he does have the same office as Chad. Not only that, Chen also became a senior engineer at Facebook. However, because he wanted to focus on developing YouTube, he also resigned from the company made by Mark Zuckerberg.
In June 2006, Chen was named one of the 50 influential people of that era by Business 2.0. It should be noted that Business 2.0 is a magazine that discusses the development of the business world in the world. This crowning cannot be separated from Chen’s role in building Youtube into a company that has a large valuation.
After Youtube was purchased by Google, Chen owns 625,366 shares of Google and an additional 68,721. That amount was equivalent to $326 million at that time. A fantastic value.
The next time, Chen again teamed up with Chad Hurley. This time they agreed to jointly pioneer the AVOS System. The company was eventually able to acquire Delicious from Yahoo! Inc.
Chen’s achievements don’t stop there. In 2011, he was awarded the 15th honorary Asian Scientists To Watch by Asian Scientist Magazine. Amazingly, this award proves that apart from being good at business, he is also capable in the field of computer technology.
In 2016, Chen was known to launch an online site which he named Nom. This site is a live cooking platform targeted at culinary connoisseurs. Unfortunately, this company was considered not very profitable so Chen decided to close it in 2017.
Currently, he is known to be starting a start-up hedge fund company called Draco Capital Macro Quant Fund. By 2021, the company has raised $50 million in funding with a goal of $200 million. This company is engaged in investment that utilizes artificial intelligence ( AI).
In 2009, Chen married a Google Korea product marketing manager named Park Ji Hyun (now known as Jamie Chen). Both live in San Francisco with their baby. The Chen family is known as a supporter of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and because of that his wife is believed to be a member of the museum’s board of trustees.
3. Jawed Karim
The last Youtube founder is Jawed Karim. This Bangladeshi man was born in Merseburg, East Germany in 1979. A year later, his parents crossed the Berlin Wall to move to West Germany. In 1922, his family emigrated to the United States.
Although both founders of YouTube, Karim are not as famous as Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. This Muslim figure is rarely discussed by many people because he does not like the spotlight that is highlighted by the media. While his two friends are indeed known as figures who are successful in pioneering start-ups.
While Karim more often hides behind the scenes. He enjoys more technical work in coding and computing, so he rarely appears in public. So do not be surprised if not so many people who know his name.
He grew up in a family of researchers. His Bangladeshi father, Naimul Karim, is a researcher at the multinational corporation 3M. Meanwhile, her mother, who is of German blood, Christine Karim, is also a research professor of biochemistry at the University of Minnesota.
Young Karim was educated at Central High School in Saint Paul Minnesota. After graduating from the school, Karim continued his tertiary education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign majoring in Computer Science. He had dropped out of college before graduating so he could work at Paypal.
Not long ago he resumed his studies and managed to get a bachelor’s degree in 2004. He and his two friends agreed to create an online dating site called Youtube. After Youtube was established, he deepened his computer science by taking his master’s degree at Stanford University.
Apart from being a co-founder, Karim is also the first YouTuber to upload videos on the platform. As we told at the beginning of the discussion, Karim uploaded a video with the title Me at The Zoo. At that time, he was in front of the elephant enclosure.
After Youtube was bought by Google, Karim got 137,443 shares with a value of $ 64 million according to the closing price of trading at that time. In 2007, it was estimated that the value of his shares was $ 1 billion. A fantastic number of growth.
Currently, Karim is reported to be one of YouTube’s advisors. He also founded a funding company which he named Youniversity Karim Ventures. The institution aims to assist students and alumni in developing their business.
Conclusion
Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim are three young men who dare to reach their dreams. They are able to combine talent, knowledge, passion, belief, and hard work into a neat lineup to realize their own expectations. They believe in their own hopes and abilities.
Their decision to leave an established job at Paypal was not an easy one. Moreover, they are the predecessor employees there. However, they remain confident to establish a platform whose future is still unclear.
Not only that, their ability to survive in bitter times deserves thumbs up. This mentality is what most entrepreneurs need. And it’s been proven, their perseverance and patience have led Youtube to become a big company so that even Google is interested in buying it at a fantastic price.
Youtube was bought by Google for $1.65 billion. Now, it is reported that YouTube’s revenue in three months has reached $ 5 billion or the equivalent of 68.8 trillion rupiah. In 2019, YouTube’s annual revenue reached $ 15.15 billion or the equivalent of 208.1 trillion rupiah.
Sinaumed’s, our review of the founder of YouTube has come to an end. As #FriendsWithoutLimits, sinaumedia never tires of accompanying you with our selected books.
Author: Mutiani Eka Astutik