Victoria&Albert Museum has included the first video uploaded to the platform by Jawed Karim, one of the co-founders of YouTube, in its collection. The museum purchased the 19-second video titled “Me at the zoo,” uploaded by Karim on April 23, 2005, along with a reconstruction based on the 2006 interface design. In the video, 25-year-old Karim talks about elephants at the San Diego Zoo. The video has been viewed over 382 million times to date and has received more than 18 million likes.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan stated, “By rebuilding the original viewing page from 2005, we are not just showing a video; we are taking the public back to the beginning of a global cultural phenomenon.” Corinna Gardner, Senior Curator of the V&A Design and Digital Department, described the work as “This YouTube moment from the early days of Web 2.0 signifies a significant turning point in internet and digital design history.”
