YouTube was invented by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim out of a garage in Menlo Park. The inventors became millionaires when they sold their invention for 1.65 billion dollars to the search engine Google.
According to their fact sheet, YouTube was founded in February 2005, as a destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through the Web. Users can upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and YouTube enables video embedding that allows YouTube videos to be placed on non-YouTube pages.
YouTube Inventor - Steve Chen
Steve Chen was born in 1978 in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States when he was 15. He was educated at the University of Illinois and and after graduation found employment at PayPal, where he met his fellow YouTube co-inventors and co-founders Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Currently, Steve Chen serves as the Chief Technology Officer at YouTube.
YouTube Inventor - Chad Hurley
Born in 1977, Chad Hurley received a Bachelors degree in Fine Art from the University of Pennsylvania and was later employed eBay’s PayPal division. Currently, Chad Hurley serves as the Chief Executive Officer at YouTube and is considered a whiz at user interface design. As a sidenote: Hurley designed Paypal's trademark logo.
YouTube Inventor - Jawed Karim
Jawed Karim also worked at Paypal, where he meet his future corporate cohorts. However, Karim has also pursued an advanced degree at Stanford University and is considered the elusive member of the threesome. According to Jawed Karim the inspiration for YouTube came from the halftime faux pas committed by Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, when Janet’s breast was accidently exposed.
Karim could not easily find that video clip online and then a few others. Not a problem he would have today.
