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Siddharth K Nair
Thatmoonemojiguy 🌝 • 4m
🎥 From Dating App to Empire: The YouTube Story In February 2005, three former PayPal employees launched a site called YouTube. Their original idea? 💘 A video dating site. The slogan: “Tune in, Hook up.” It flopped. No one uploaded dating videos. But something strange happened: People started uploading random clips vacations, parties, pets. One of the founders posted the first video ever: "Me at the zoo." A 19-second clip. No polish. No plan. But it was relatable. It was human. Suddenly, YouTube wasn’t a dating site. It was becoming the internet’s video layer. By late 2005, it was exploding with user-generated content. 📹 65,000 videos uploaded per day 👀 100 million views per day VCs rushed in. Google saw the writing on the wall. In 2006, they acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion. Critics scoffed: "That’s a billion dollars for home videos and copyright lawsuits." But Google had a longer vision. They didn’t see a website. They saw the future of human attention. 🚀 Fast forward to 2024: 📈 YouTube made $36.1 billion in revenue. 🎵 YouTube Music has 868 million users. 💰 And it's the top destination for both creators and advertisers. What’s wild? YouTube gives away over 50% of its ad revenue to creators. While others tried to own attention, YouTube shared it and in doing so, earned global dominance. 💼 The Business Lesson? 1. Great platforms often start by pivoting from failure. 2. Don't chase short-term money—chase product-market fit. 3. Build ecosystems. Empower users. Play infinite games. What started as a failed dating site… became the largest video platform in the world. Cat videos built an empire. 🌝👑
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