The Victoria & Albert Museum in London has made a significant addition to its collection by acquiring the first video ever uploaded to YouTube, along with an early version of the platform's watch page.
Titled "Me at the zoo," this groundbreaking video was uploaded on April 23, 2005, shortly after YouTube's founding by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. The 19-second clip features Karim at the San Diego Zoo, standing in front of elephants.
YouTube entered public beta just a month later and was acquired by Google in November 2006 for a staggering $1.65 billion. Recent financial evaluations suggest that if Alphabet, Google's parent company, were to separate from YouTube, the platform could be valued at over $500 billion, representing about 30% of Alphabet's total worth.
According to a blog post from the museum, the acquisition includes three key items: the original front-end code of YouTube from December 9, 2006, the video file of "Me at the zoo," and copies of YouTube advertisements from late 2006 and early 2007. Collaboration between museum curators, YouTube's User Experience team, and the design studio oio led to the reconstruction of the YouTube watch page for this collection.
The museum emphasized the cultural significance of the YouTube watch page, stating that it not only represents the advent of Web 2.0 and user-generated content but also foreshadows the rise of the creator economy and platform capitalism. It highlights how early design choices have influenced modern economic and cultural landscapes.
The reconstructed watch page is currently on display at the V&A South Kensington as part of the Design 1900-Now gallery, as well as at the V&A East Storehouse.
This acquisition marks a continuation of the museum's efforts to embrace digital culture, following previous acquisitions that included items from the reproductive health app Euki in 2019 and the popular Chinese messaging platform WeChat in 2017.
For those interested in the complexities of preserving digital artifacts, the museum's blog offers an in-depth look at the challenges faced in reconstructing the watch page.
