Twenty years ago this past week, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted the very first YouTube video, titled "Me at the Zoo."

"All right. So here we are, in front of the elephants. The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks. And that's cool. And that's pretty much all there is to say."

YouTube was so new that our Charles Osgood had to define it for "Sunday Morning" viewers back in 2006: "A website that lets just about anyone post videos for the whole world to see."

Today, it doesn't need explaining. YouTube is the second most-visited website on Earth, after Google, which bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006 .

Every single day, we collectively watch more than a billion hours of YouTube videos. Funny videos how-to videos cat videos. In these first 20 years, we've uploaded 20 billion videos to YouTube.

The most-watched of all? "Baby Shark Dance," with about 16 billion views.

And people aren't just watching on their phones. "People watch YouTube more than they watch any other streaming service on their big screens in their living rooms now," said David Craig, who teaches media and culture at the University of Southern California at Annenberg.

Craig says that a key moment was the day YouTube started paying people for making videos. "YouTube came along and said, 'Why don't we give you some advertising revenue in exchange for the fact that you're helping us grow our service?'" he said.

Today, YouTube roughly splits the ad revenue with the creator, according to Craig: "It does probably change a little bit for some of the bigger-name players out there who they obviously need to make sure are very happy with the service."

Those bigger-name players include Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, creators of a daily show called "Good Mythical Morning." Thirty-four million subscribers have watched their shows 14 billion times.

McLaughlin described the show's appeal: "Two old friends hanging out, where you can be the third person in that friendship. We kind of stumbled upon this secret formula for having people come back every single day."

They may film in a traditional TV studio, but what is the difference between YouTube and TV? "I'd like to say our talent," Neal laughed.

"A big part of it is responding to the audience," said McLaughlin. "You've got comments, right? So, there's ways that you can connect with people online."

David Craig said, "Creators on YouTube, specifically, are not content creators. They are for-profit community organizers . They are using this platform to build online communities that they can build a dozen different business models off of."

For McLaughlin and Neal, those business models could include tours, books, sweatshirts, hoodies, magnets and pins. "And you can start to go bigger and sell hair products," said Neal. "If we're gonna spend as much time as we both spend on our hair, we are going to monetize it!"

Nobody's monetized it better than Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, whose videos of colossal giveaways and physical challenges have made him the most-followed YouTuber of all, with 380 million fans.

Last year, Amazon Prime spent $100 million to produce a MrBeast game show.

I asked David Craig, "Is being a YouTube star now considered a greater ambition than becoming a television star?"

"I hate to tell you this, David, but that's been the case now for over 10 years," Craig replied. "They've been surveying young people, and they've all said they want to grow up to be a creator or an influencer more than a celebrity C or, I'm sorry to say, a journalist."

From the archives: The early days of YouTube

Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal don't think that the advertising industry has quite caught up with YouTube's dominance. "If you look at the 18-to-34 age group, we outperform all of the other late-night shows combined," said Neal. "But if you look at revenue that's being spent on those shows versus our show, it's not quite there yet."

"And honestly, this is one of the reasons that we have really been interested in winning an Emmy," McLaughlin added. "You know, we're a part of the cultural conversation, as much as many shows that have won Emmys."

Over the last two decades, YouTube has had its controversies, from collecting personal information about kids , to claims that the site is fueling a mental health crisis .

YouTube's detractors also worry about the algorithm. It studies which videos seem to grab your attention, and feeds you more videos like them. YouTube has been accused of letting the algorithm lead people to extreme viewpoints .

YouTube's struggle to police its channels

"We have this enormous diversity of opinions on our platform," said YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. "We don't allow adult content. We obviously don't allow spam and fraud. And we have policies to protect young people and kids on the platform. But it's fundamentally a platform for freedom of speech. "

So, with YouTube's 20th anniversary upon us, what are the next few years going to be like? According to Mohan, "One of the areas that I'm very excited about is artificial intelligence. You can tell YouTube when you're creating a video, 'Put us in Central Park, and change the background, and have these types of birds because it's a spring day.' And that magical technology exists today."

I asked, "Is there something about evolution or psychology that makes us so interested in watching other people?"

"I think it goes back to we, as human beings, are social beings," said Mohan. "We connect with other people. We are storytellers. That is what happens billions of times a day on YouTube. And it's back to our mission: give everyone a voice and show them the world."

"It's a double rainbow all the way!"

For more info:

YouTube

David Craig, Director of the Global Media and Communication program, University of Southern California, Annenberg , Los Angeles

Good Mythical Morning

MrBeast

Story produced by David Rothman. Editor: Jason Schmidt.

See also:

How YouTube went from David to Goliath ("Sunday Morning")

Copyright 082025 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

就在上周的二十年前，YouTube联合创始人贾维德·卡里姆（Jawed Karim）上传了YouTube上的第一条视频，标题为《动物园里的我》（Me at the Zoo）。

好的，我们在这里，就在大象的面前。这些家伙很酷的地方在于它们拥有非常、非常、非常长的象鼻。这真的很酷。这基本上就是全部了。

YouTube在2006年的时候还相当新，以至于我们的查尔斯·奥古德（Charles Osgood）不得不为《周日早晨》的观众们定义它：“这是一个让几乎任何人都可以发布视频供全世界观看的网站。”

如今，YouTube无需过多解释。在谷歌以1.65亿美元在2006年收购之后，它已成为地球上网民访问量第二大的网站。

每天，我们共同观看超过十亿小时的YouTube视频，从有趣的视频到操作指南，再到猫咪视频。在过去的20年里，我们已经在YouTube上上传了200亿个视频。

最受欢迎的？《小鲨鱼舞》，约16亿次观看。

人们不仅仅在手机上观看视频。南加州大学安嫩伯格传播学院的David Craig表示：“现在，人们在家里的大屏幕上观看YouTube的次数多于其他任何流媒体服务。”

克雷格（Craig）表示，一个关键时刻是YouTube开始为制作视频的人支付报酬的那一天。他说：“YouTube出现了并说：‘为什么我们不给你一些广告收入，以换取你帮助我们发展我们的服务这一事实呢？’”

据克雷格所说，如今YouTube与创作者大体上平分广告收入，"对于那些他们明显需要确保对服务非常满意的较大名气的玩家，这确实可能有些许变化。"

这些知名度更高的参与者包括Rhett McLaughlin和Link Neal，他们是每日节目《好神奇早晨》的创作者。他们的节目已被3400万名订阅者观看了14亿次。

麦克劳林描述了该节目的吸引力：“两个老朋友在闲逛，你可以成为他们友谊中的第三个人。我们偶然发现了这个秘密公式，让人们每天都能回来。”

他们可能在传统的电视演播室进行拍摄，但YouTube和电视之间的区别在哪里呢？‘我想说的是我们的才华’，尼尔笑着说道。

麦克拉林说：「其中很大一部分是回应观众。你收到了评论，对吧？所以，你有很多方式可以在网上与人们互动。」

大卫·克雷格（David Craig）说：“具体来说，YouTube上的创作者不是内容创作者。他们是营利性社区组织者。他们正在利用这个平台建立在线社区，然后可以从中建立十几个不同的商业模式。”

对于McLaughlin和Neal来说，这些商业模式可以包括巡演、书籍、运动衫、连帽衫、磁铁和胸针等。“而且你可以开始扩大规模，销售美发产品，”Neal说。“如果我们两人都在头发上花费同样的时间，我们就让它变得有价值！”

没有人比吉米·唐纳森（MrBeast）的变现能力更强了，他通过发布巨大的奖品和身体挑战的视频，成为了YouTube上拥有最多粉丝的博主，拥有3.8亿粉丝。

去年，亚马逊Prime频道花费了1亿美元制作了MrBeast的电视游戏节目。

我问大卫·克莱格（David Craig）道："现在成为YouTube明星是否比成为电视明星更有野心？"

克雷格回答道：“我必须告诉你这个，大卫，这种情况已经持续了超过10年。他们一直在对年轻人进行调查，他们都说，比起成为名人——或者很抱歉地说，成为记者——他们更想长大后成为创作者或影响力人物。”

来自档案：YouTube的早期岁月

Rhett McLaughlin和Link Neal认为广告业尚未完全赶上YouTube的统治地位。Neal说：“如果你关注18至34岁的年龄组，我们的收视率超过了其他所有深夜节目的总和。但是，如果你比较这些节目和我们节目的收入，那么还差得远。”

老实说，这是我们一直对赢得艾美奖感兴趣的原因之一，”McLaughlin补充道。“你知道的，我们也是文化对话的一部分，就像许多已经赢得艾美奖的节目一样。”

在过去的二十年里，YouTube曾饱受争议，从收集儿童个人信息到有人称该网站正在引发心理健康危机。

YouTube的反对者同样对算法表示担忧。算法会研究哪些视频能够吸引用户的注意力，并基于此推荐更多相似视频。有指责称，YouTube的算法会引导人们走向极端观点。

YouTube 在管理其频道方面的挑战

YouTube 首席执行官尼尔·莫汉（Neal Mohan）表示：“我们的平台上存在大量不同的观点。我们不允许成人内容。我们显然不允许垃圾邮件和欺诈行为。我们还有政策来保护平台上年轻人和孩子的权益。但从根本上讲，它是一个言论自由的平台。”

随着YouTube迎来它的20周年，未来几年将如何发展？Mohan表示：“我非常兴奋的一个领域是人工智能。当你在制作视频时，你可以告诉YouTube‘让我们置身于中央公园，改变背景，并出现这些种类的鸟，因为现在是春天。’而这样的神奇技术今天已经存在。”

我问道：“在进化或心理学中，是否有什么因素让我们如此热衷于观察他人？”

莫汉说：“我认为这要归因于，我们作为人类，是社会性生物。我们与其他人建立联系。我们是讲故事的人。这每天在YouTube上发生数亿次。这再次回到我们的使命：给每个人一个发声的机会，向他们展示世界。”

这整个过程都是双彩虹啊！

更多信息请见：

YouTube

洛杉矶南加州大学安纳堡（Annenberg）的全球媒体与传播项目主任戴维·克雷格（David Craig）

美好的神秘早晨

MrBeast

该故事由David Rothman创作，编辑为Jason Schmidt。

另请参阅：

《星期日早晨》报道了YouTube从“大卫”到“歌利亚”的转变

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