# "Me at the zoo", YouTube’s first video

> YouTube's first upload had over 386 million reported views by its twenty-first birthday.

- Owner: Jawed Karim / YouTube
- Kind: Creator moment
- Sector: Technology
- Seed date: 2005-04-23
- Peak proxy date: Week of Apr 28, 2025
- Date basis: Proxy date; not a directly measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 50 (Notable), v1.3
- Mechanics: Maker origin, Platform jump, Controversy, Revival, Press loop

## Summary

Karim uploaded the zoo clip as YouTube's first video. Anniversary coverage revisited it, and he used its description to protest platform changes. The clip later became an animal-welfare campaign reference and a V&A museum exhibit.

## Timeline

- 2005-04-23 — Jawed Karim (@jawed) (YouTube) — Karim uploaded footage of himself at San Diego Zoo's elephant enclosure, filmed by Yakov Lapitsky.
- 2006-10-09 — Google (Open web) — Google announced a $1.65 billion stock deal for YouTube, the platform that hosted the clip.
- 2010-04-10 — The Observer (Press) — The Observer opened its retrospective on YouTube's stars with Karim's zoo clip.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/youtube-me-at-the-zoo

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “"Me at the zoo", YouTube’s first video.” Case HIS-01455. Spread Score v1.3: 50/100. Updated 2026-10-23. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01455