YouTube started as a dating site…

Name: YouTube started as a dating site…
Uploaded: 2024-11-03T15:23:09+00:00
Duration: 57 s
Channel: Hiten Shah
Description: A short YouTube video (narrated anecdote) describing YouTube’s origin story: the founders originally intended it as a video-based dating site inspired by…

3 Nov 2024 · 1 min

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A short YouTube video (narrated anecdote) describing YouTube’s origin story: the founders originally intended it as a video-based dating site inspired by Hot or Not, registering YouTube.com on Valentine’s Day with the slogan “tune in, hook up.” Early uptake was poor despite promotional attempts, until users began posting general-interest videos (pets, vacations). The founders removed dating features and repositioned YouTube as an all-purpose video-sharing site; within about 18 months they raised venture funding, gained tens of millions of users, and sold the company to Google for $1.6 billion.

Questions this video answers

"tune in, hook up."

Registered on Valentine’s Day.

Within 18 months.

$1.6 billion.

Chapters

Did you know about YouTube's romantic roots? So in 2005, a website called Hot or Not was thriving. It lets you look at people's photos and rate them out of 10. But three guys in their 20s thought they could do better with video. So they registered YouTube.com on Valentine's Day. It was a place to upload a video dating profile and the slogan was tune in, hook up. But there was a problem. No one used it. So they tried everything from pitching media to offering women $20 on Craigslist to make an upload. But still, no one cared. Until they noticed something interesting. People started sharing videos about other stuff like pets and vacations. So the co founders said screw it, removed the dating features and repositioned as a website for all videos. Within 18 months, everything changed. They raised millions of dollars, got tens of millions of users and sold to Google for 1.6 billion. Those three dudes who started at hotternot ended in society's history.