YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by three former PayPal employees: Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. Steve Chen and Jawed Karim brought technical expertise as software engineers, while Chad Hurley contributed design skills, shaping YouTube's user-friendly interface

. Originally, YouTube was conceived as a video version of an online dating service, but the founders quickly pivoted to a broader video-sharing platform that allowed anyone to upload and share videos easily. The first video uploaded to YouTube was "Me at the zoo," by co-founder Jawed Karim, symbolizing the platform's mission to empower users to share their stories

. The company grew rapidly and was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, becoming the largest video-sharing platform worldwide and transforming how people create and consume video content online