YouTube was created by three PayPal employees as a video-sharing website where users could upload, share, and view content. The Internet domain name "www.youtube.com" was activated on Monday, February 14, 2005, at 9:13:12 p.m.

Purchase by Google (2006)

On October 9, 2006, it was announced that the company would be purchased by Google for US$1.65 billion in stock, which was completed on November 13. At that time it was Google's second-largest acquisition. This kickstarted YouTube's rise to becoming a global media dominator, creating a multi-billion dollar business that has surpassed most television stations and other media markets, sparking success for so many different YouTubers and content creators. The agreement between Google and YouTube came after YouTube presented three agreements with media companies in an attempt to avoid copyright-infringement lawsuits. YouTube planned to continue operating independently, with its co-founders and 68 employees working within Google. Viral videos were the main factor for YouTube's growth at the beginning of its early days with Google, for example, Evolution of Dance, Charlie Bit My Finger, David After the Dentist and so many more.
Google's February 7, 2007, SEC filing revealed the breakdown of profits for YouTube's investors after the sale to Google. In 2010, Chad Hurley's profit was more than $395 million while Steve Chen's profit was more than $326 million.

Creators

The creation of YouTube has allowed for a brand new job archetype to emerge from the media platform, being a YouTuber. The role has evolved from its early days and has become something totally different than it originally was. In the beginnings of YouTube, the creators did not do everything for the money, because generally there was none, today wealth is directly associated with the title. Before everything on YouTube was overrun with ads, monetization and loud teenagers the content creators did it for the publicity and love of creating videos. In the early days of the video platform popularity and payment was determined by the number of subscribers a channel had, today things are judged by the average views a video gets and that determines the amount of money a person can make. The earliest pioneers of YouTube, many of whom have now fizzled out, were Ray William Johnson, FRED, Smosh, NigaHiga, Mail Order Comedy, BroadCity and too many more to list. YouTube today is run by the Jake and Logan Paul's and their teams of "content creators", PewDiePie and his 104 million subscribers, and Mr. Beast whose content is primarily handing out loads of money for people to win in challenges while he records it, but YouTube popularity changes constantly. Almost 3,000 YouTube channels today have a million subscribers, nearly 25,000 have more 100,000 subscribers, and on average four channels get to a million subscribers every single day.YouTube is no longer a simple website for the average internet user, it is now a necessary item for people to maintain their daily dose information, and is even a means of starting a prosperous career.