YouTube celebrates 10-year anniversary

A decade ago on Thursday YouTube made history when its co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the site's first video.

A decade ago on Thursday YouTube made history when its co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the site's first video.

The video-sharing site, which now boasts over a billion users, has risen to fame from small beginnings after Karim posted a 19-second clip on elephants and their 'really, really long trunks.'

YouTube debuted publicly days after that first upload and has since gone from strength to strength, with users from across the globe posting a reported 300 hours of new video every minute of the day (International Business Times), including music clips, cartoons, exercise manuals and movies.

YouTube was sold to Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

According to Tubefilter, YouTube will mark the occasion with a month-long 10th birthday bash starting next week, ahead of its annual Brandcast, with creators including Tyler Oakley, Lilly 'Superwoman' Singh, Dude Perfect and The Slow Mo Guys expected to attend.