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YouTube Name, Logo, and Domain Trademarked
Chad Hurley, along with his friends Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, register copyrights for the name "YouTube", as well as the website's logo and web domain. -
First YouTube Video Uploaded
The first ever YouTube video was titled "Me at the Zoo", and featured YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim at a local zoo. The video, which is only 19 seconds long, currently has over 29 million views. -
First Video With 1 Million Hits
The first YouTube video to reach one million views was a Nike advertisement featuring famous soccer player Ronaldinho. This milestone displays the increasing popularity of YouTube, as well as the marketing potential of the website. -
Google Buys YouTube
YouTube, which was a tiny company at the time, was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion. This expanded the website's capacity, allowing more people to access YouTube, which caused the site's popularity to continue to increase steadily. -
Launch of YouTube Partner Program
YouTube launched its Partner Program, which allowed some popular creators to get paid for posting YouTube videos. This represents the first time that posting to YouTube could be a career option. -
First Advertisements on YouTube
The first advertisements, which appeared as banners on videos, were added to YouTube. This introduced the idea of using YouTube as a marketing tool to make a profit. -
VEVO Created
YouTube and Vivendi created the music video service VEVO, which allows YouTube to legally use music from popular artists and labels. This resolved copyright claims that YouTube was recieving regarding its use of music, and attracted many new viewers to the YouTube website. -
Launch of Movie Streaming on YouTube
YouTube launched a new service where popular movies could be streamed on the website for a fee. This allowed them to better compete with other online media outlets such as Netflix. -
Launch of YouTube Live
YouTube introduces a new service called YouTube Live, which allows content to be broacast live on the website. This advancement made YouTube a direct competitor with other live media outlets, such as radio or television. -
First Video With 1 Billion Hits
The video "Gangnam Style" by South Korean artist Psy was the first YouTube video to garner one billion views. Clearly, YouTube's popularity had increased massively, since the video was able to reach so many people worldwide. -
Launch of YouTube Red
YouTube launched a new subscription service called YouTube Red, where people can pay to access additional YouTube features, such as music downloads, background video playback, and exclusive creator content. This increased YouTube's profitability, increasing its competitiveness against more traditional media platforms.
