YouTube is currently one of the biggest websites in the world, but just 20 years ago, it was a simple idea shared on email.
On the evening of February 13, 2005, Jawed Karim sent an email to Chad Hurley and Steve Chen that would change the internet forever. The subject line was deceptively simple: “video idea.” The message itself outlined a vision so compelling that within months, YouTube would launch and begin its meteoric rise to becoming one of the most influential platforms in digital history.
A Vision Born from Timing
Karim’s enthusiasm leaps off the page in the opening lines. “I just talked to both of you on the phone. I’m 100% convinced that this can be HUGE if executed right,” he wrote. “It’s the kind of thing that will be picked up by MTV and Maxim right away.”
The timing, Karim believed, was perfect. “Video digital cameras are exploding right now,” he observed. This wasn’t just technological determinism—it was prescient market analysis. Consumer video cameras were indeed becoming ubiquitous, but no platform existed to easily share that content online.
The proposed codename? Simply “Video.” Karim was cautious about operational security, warning his co-founders not to discuss the concept too openly, even avoiding references to competing platforms in public channels.
Technical Challenges and Bold Solutions
Despite his optimism, Karim wasn’t naive about the hurdles ahead. The email meticulously outlined several technical issues that would need solving. Format compatibility topped the list. Karim proposed converting uploaded AVI files to Flash movies for universal playback, explicitly noting they wanted to avoid launching Windows Media Player. This decision would prove crucial—Flash’s ubiquity made YouTube accessible to virtually anyone with a web browser. Bandwidth costs presented another concern, though Karim was characteristically optimistic: “Bandwidth costs will be high, but bandwidth is getting very cheap, so might be OK. (Cheap at high volume).”
But the most pressing issue, emphasized in capital letters as “BIGGEST ISSUE BY FAR,” was web server scalability. Karim pointed his co-founders to a technical architecture article, noting that they would face the same challenges that had plagued similar platforms in their early days: “They moved hosting centers, rewrote system, used MySQL mirrors, etc.”
The Competitive Pressure
What’s particularly striking about the email is its sense of urgency. Karim noted that a competing platform could implement their idea in about 10 days, meaning YouTube needed to “come out with all guns blazing and have matchmaking functionality already built in, so we can immediately be a useful site, and not just a new fad.”
This wasn’t about building a video hosting service—it was about creating a complete product with social features from day one. The emphasis on “matchmaking functionality” hints at the recommendation and discovery features that would later become central to YouTube’s success.
The Meeting That Changed Everything
The email concluded with a simple directive: “Meet tomorrow night after 8PM at Chad’s!”
That meeting, and the countless hours of work that followed, would result in YouTube’s launch just a few months later. The first video, appropriately titled “Me at the zoo,” was uploaded by Karim himself on April 23, 2005. Within a year and a half, YouTube would be acquired by Google for $1.65 billion.
Legacy of a Founding Document
Reading Karim’s email today, what’s most remarkable is how clearly he understood both the opportunity and the obstacles. He correctly identified the market timing, anticipated the technical challenges, recognized the competitive pressure, and understood the need for a complete social experience rather than just a technical solution.
The email also reveals the collaborative dynamic of YouTube’s founding team. This wasn’t a solo visionary imposing his will—it was a dialogue between partners who had already discussed the concept by phone and were now moving to execution.
Twenty years later, YouTube hosts over 500 hours of video uploaded every minute and has fundamentally transformed media, entertainment, education, and culture. And it all traces back to an email with the modest subject line: “video idea.”
Sometimes the biggest revolutions start with the simplest messages.