Long before Tinder took off as a dating app, there was a little-known video site that tried to be cupid.
This definitely does not occur to anyone when it comes to the largest video site, which has over a billion visits per month. This is how YouTube was born, which Google bought in 2006 for 1.6 billion dollars.
„"We always thought it was all about video, but what exactly should that app be?" said co-founder Steve Chen. "We thought a dating site was the obvious choice."“
The idea was for single people to introduce themselves and show what they're really looking for, Chen said. After 5 days no one posted a single video, so everyone together considered this existence.
They knew they had an untapped technology that allowed people to easily upload video online.
„"Okay, forget the dating site," Chen said. "Let's open it up to any type of video".
Vacating people on a dating site is short-lived but always considered. Chen said they registered the YouTube domain on February 14 for more than a decade.
„"Just 3 men who had nothing else to do on Valentine's Day," he added.
Apparently, the effort paid off. YouTube grew into a video empire and launched the careers of several celebrities including Justin Bieber, artist Michelle Phan and Swedish gamer PewDiePie. As the service began to expand, so it gained payment options, YouTube Red was dedicated only to games.
Chen launched a new startup project, Nom, at SXSW with Vijay Karunamurthy, YouTube's first engineer. The service was a food-only live video service where chefs could live stream their cooking. The app was launched last week.
