First video ever uploaded to YouTube turns 10 years old today

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Thursday, April 23, 2015
(jawed/YouTube)
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Ten years ago today, the very first YouTube video was uploaded to the web. In the decade that followed, YouTube has become home for more than a few cat videos, but can you guess what that first video was about? We doubt it.

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The 19-second, heavily pixelated "Me at the zoo" video was uploaded by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, with the username "jawed" on April 23, 2005. Shot at the San Diego Zoo, the video features Karim talking about the elephants.

The entire video's transcript as follows:

"Alright, so here we are in front of the, uh, elephants. Uh. The cool thing about these guys is that, is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks, and that's, that's cool. And that's pretty much all there is to say."

And, yeah, that's pretty much all we have to say, too. But that's history!

The video is a far cry from the most watched or liked video on YouTube, with only a paltry 19.4 million views and 224,000 likes across a decade. Compare that with the with reigning champion of both views and likes, "Gangnam Style" which has over 2.3 billion views and 9.3 million likes.

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