Victoria and Albert Museum in London Acquires First Video Uploaded to YouTube

London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has made a groundbreaking acquisition, adding the first video in the history of YouTube to its collection. The video titled "Me at the zoo", published on April 23, 2005 at 8:27 PM, features Jawed Karim in front of the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo. Although it lasts just 19 seconds and is characterized by low technical quality, the museum deemed it a fundamental piece of digital heritage. Alongside the video file itself, the institution also secured an early version of the website from 2006, allowing visitors to trace the evolution of the user interface in the platform's initial development phase. This initiative is part of the new exhibition "Design 1900 – Now", which was ceremoniously opened in February 2026. The curators emphasize that YouTube, founded by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and the aforementioned Karim, forever changed the way humanity consumes and creates video content. The decision to place an amateur recording in such a prestigious institution has sparked a discussion about defining contemporary monuments. However, experts point out that the clip, which has garnered over 382 million views and 18 million likes, is an excellent example of the democratization of media and the birth of a participatory culture. The YouTube platform was officially founded in February 2005. As early as 2006, it was purchased by Google for the then-astronomical sum of $1.65 billion, becoming one of the most important acquisitions in Silicon Valley history. The exhibition presents YouTube not only as an entertainment tool but primarily as a triumph of digital service design. Visitors can see how the simple idea of sharing videos transformed into a global empire that has influenced politics, education, and the daily lives of billions of people. This symbolic transition from "junk video" to cultural heritage status confirms that the boundary between high culture and digital everyday life has been definitively blurred. Today, the service generates billions of dollars in revenue and is a primary source of information and entertainment for the younger generation, making it one of the most influential projects of the 21st century. Statistics of the First YouTube Video: Views: 382, Likes: 18, Comments: 1121 years — passed from the founding of YouTube to the V&A exhibition[{"dataISO": "2005-02-14", "data": "February 14, 2005", "tytul": "Domain Registration", "opis": "Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim register the youtube.com domain."}, {"dataISO": "2005-04-23", "data": "April 23, 2005", "tytul": "First Video", "opis": "Jawed Karim uploads the 19-second video Me at the zoo."}, {"dataISO": "2006-11-01", "data": "November 2006", "tytul": "Acquisition by Google", "opis": "The search giant finalizes the purchase of the service for $1.65 billion."}, {"dataISO": "2026-02-19", "data": "February 19, 2026", "tytul": "YouTube in the Museum", "opis": "Opening of the exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum featuring the video as an exhibit."}]