20 years of YouTube From Gangnam Style to cameraman Bruno - the most legendary clips
Twenty years ago, YouTube wanted to get into the ring with TV channels and Hollywood studios. It all started with a simple visit to the zoo. A short journey through the platform's best clips.
12.02.2025, 09:28
14.02.2025, 09:46
dpa
As one of three YouTube founders, Jawed Karim uploaded an 18-second clip of a visit to the elephants at the San Diego Zoo on April 23, 2005 as the first video on the then completely inconspicuous video platform. Over the past 20 years, however, the banal short video has been viewed almost 360 million times.
However, the YouTube platform was launched on February 14, 2005, when friends Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim registered the domain youtube.com. The three former PayPal employees originally wanted to create a dating website where users could upload short videos to introduce themselves. However, this concept was quickly abandoned.
First viral video with Ronaldinho
YouTube quickly became popular not only in the internet community: The advertising industry also quickly discovered the platform for itself. In November 2005, a commercial featuring Ronaldinho from Nike was the first video to break the one million views barrier. This heralded the age of viral videos.
YouTube developed rapidly and even eclipsed Google Video. However, the success of the platform drove the YouTube founders into a financial corner, as the constantly growing costs for streaming were hardly matched by income. In their search for a solvent investor, the three friends ended up with Susan Wojcicki, then head of Google Video. She was finally persuaded by a viral video of two boys who had filmed themselves singing a Backstreet Boys song on playback. YouTube now belonged to Google.
Gangnam Style breaks through the billion-dollar barrier
The popularity of YouTube continued to grow. In March 2013, the threshold of one billion viewers per month was exceeded for the first time. Viral videos such as "Evolution of Dance" - the first YouTube video to pass the 100 million views mark - contributed to this success.
The song "Gangnam Style", released in 2012, is also a real internet phenomenon. In June 2014, this clip was the first video to achieve more than two billion views. It now has over five billion.
But even beyond music videos, the platform is an almost inexhaustible treasure trove of content, from repair instructions to make-up and fashion tips to test reports on cell phones, laptops and the like. And celebrities are always making headlines on YouTube. In August 2024, for example, football world star Cristiano Ronaldo launched his own YouTube channel and reached the one million subscriber mark within 90 minutes - a world record.
Unique Swiss videos on YouTube
And even some Swiss people landed viral hits on YouTube. Most of them nationwide. Almost everyone knows the legendary clip of Bruno the cameraman. And Richi on the tractor and the unforgettable talk show with Osman are probably still familiar to many.
Many creators today also make a living from their content offerings. According to YouTube boss Neal Mohan, his company has paid out 70 billion dollars to creators and partners for content within three years. YouTube does not take any financial risk: If a video flops, the company earns nothing. But it doesn't lose any money either.
