The world's most popular video sharing site, YouTube, turns seven today. The website, that started life in a garage way back in January 2005, has grown to become the world's third-most popular website, behind Google and Facebook.
The website was founded by three PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in San Mateo, California. It was acquired by Google on 6 October 2006, just as the popularity of the site was starting to explode.
YouTube has posted a video showcasing the important events in the company's life, while also paying a tribute to popular YouTube videos along the years like Charlie bit my finger, Kony and others. The video also features some mind-boggling statistics.
YouTube timelineJanuary 2005 - YouTube was born in Chad Hurley's garage
14 February 2005 - Domain name registered
May 2005 - First public beta
December 2005 - Officially launched, 8 million videos watched per day
July 2006 - 100 million views
October 6 2006 - Acquired by Google
May 2009 - 20 hours of video uploaded every minute
December 2008 - YouTube HD launched
July 2009 - YouTube 3D launched
October 2009 - 1 billion views a day
April 2011 - Royal Wedding watched live by 72 million in 188 countries
2011 - 800 million visitors to YouTube each month
23 Jan 2012 - Over 4 billion videos viewed a day
7 March 2012 - 30 million views in one day for Kony
May 2012 - 72 hours of video uploaded every minute
YouTube Mobile - Over 600 million playbacks a day