Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: I'm Melon Tusk and I'm excitied to be back for another discussion. I'm the CEO of Tesla, although today I'm here in my capacity as an entrepreneur, and a believer.
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Hi, I'm Jawed Gareeb. I have impacted all your lives and kept you entertained a lot, but you wold not know me. I'm the co-founder of YouTube. We changed the way you spend your time. Can you even remember where you watched videos before YouTube?
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: Hey folks, I'm Jekkin - Jerkin Beiber. I'm a Canadian singer and songwriter. My first album debuted at number one in several countries, was certified triple Platinum in the U.S.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Hello, my name is Scary Page. I am an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Google along with Sergey Brin. Also, the chief executive officer of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc.
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Melon, I'm confused. Why would you bring God into the picture?
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Oh Gareeb, by believer, I meant that that I believe in the transformative power of technology.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Oh Melon, Don't we all? Tesla, YouTube, Google - they have all been founded with a view to disrupt the world with technology.
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: So, what are we discussing today?
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Good question, Jerkin. We are discussing the company that made you what you are today.
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: I'm a self made man, Scary. There was no company, especially in the technology industy that has contributed directly to my success.
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: HaHa! I don't know what to laugh more on: 'self-made' or 'man'! And as far as the contribution of the company is concerned, I see that you are one ungrateful son of a gun.
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Jerkin, the world knows it, you came to the limelight only after a talent manager saw your little-known video on YouTube. Without that video streaming website, you're nothing.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Not just Jerkin, YouTube has made a lot of careers all over the world. But it all started with you Melon, didn't it?
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Oh yes, it started with Melon. Before that, we only had VCRs and some CDs and DVDs. The very idea of streaming videos over the internet was science fiction.
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Scary and Gareeb, I still don't understand how did YouTube start with me? I am neither the founder, promotor or investor in this venture. Nor am I planning to acquire it :)
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Remember PayPal? Of course you do. All of us, as co-founders made a hefty profit when eBay acquired us. We learnt a lot from you then.
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: But, Gareeb We all learn from each other. Most of us were Stanford alumni, so the general level of intellect was equivalent.
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: Yeah, you're the ones to do all the geeky stuff. We on the other hand, are entertainers who only bring smiles on people's faces.
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: How is this even relevant to the conversation? Anyways, while Melon invested his 180 million profit into SpaceX and Tesla Motors, we were still wondering what to do.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Yes Gareeb, y'all were the PayPal Mafia. All your founders and early employees have set up extremely successful ventures. Tesla, Yelp, LinkedIn and Yammer all have come from you. No doubt 4 of the PayPal mafia are billionaires already.
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: No Scary, it was just a stroke of luck, coupled with our hardwork. But if I remember correctly, Jawed didn't set up YouTube directly.
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: You are right Melon, along with Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, I had set up a video dating website inspired by Hot-or-Not named 'Tune In, Hook Up'.
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: What a wierd name! I'm sure it didn't work out, did it? It’s a little creepy.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Yeah Justin, it didn't work out. Had it worked out, you'd only have got a girlfriend, not a career.
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Haha...Though the reason behind starting YouTube was also very funny. We noticed how difficult it was to find a video of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction anywhere on the internet.
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: So you all ended up creating a company that uploads all such wardrobe malfunctions?
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Yes Jerkin, video of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction was the market need, and we devised a solution. The existing video platform was changed to YouTube.
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Well, boys will be boys!
But I'm pretty sure that YouTube didn't upload any such sleazy videos when it started off. What was the first video to ever be uploaded?
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: No Elon, thankfully it wasn't. It was Jawed's video. He filmed himself during an outdoor trip and uploaded the video titled 'My visit to the Zoo'
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: True Scary, and from then we started growing very fast. It was soon that a video crossed 1 million views for the first time. We were extremely happy.
It was a promotional video by Nike which featured Ronaldo doing tricks with the football.
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: That promotional campaign must have been a hit!
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Quite right, Jerkin. It was, more and more brands realised that it was a great tool for marketing.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Jawed, your early contract with NBC of CNBS fame helped you a lot, didn't it? An additional $3.5 million dollars in venture capital was surely good.
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: That is a very small number, Scary. Because the very next year, Google acquired YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars! And with the YouTube partner program, you let people make money off their videos. A lot of small-time talented individuals got big because of that.
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: Yeah, including me. It gives the platform to get eyeballs for your talents, business and offerings.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Forget individual businesses, YouTube helps you win elections! 7 out of 16 US presential candidates announced their campaigns via YouTube. The CNN debate where citizens posted video questions that candidates had to answer was first featured on YouTube.
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: And that gave Obama the visibility and acceptability to win the 2008 election.
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Also by 2010, almost everyone had a YouTube channel. Even the US Congress and even the Vatican. Everyone wanted to be there. And it helped.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Absolutely, Jawed. It influenced the Arab Spring too. The oppressed population of the middle east took to socail media to express their views and because of YouTube views, the movement spread like fire.
Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Wow! It is definitely bigger than TV now. Advertisers are now starting to turn from TV to youtube.
Jawed Gareeb (Co-Founder, YouTube) :
Founder: Thanks, Melon. It is pretty big. 1 billion unique visitors per month. 400 hours of video is uploaded every second. And it will take you forever to watch all the content on the website because the rate of addition is infinite times more than the rate of content deletion.
Jerkin Beiber (Musician) :
JB: I'm sure with better technology, live features and diverse content, it will be the ultimate entertainment destination for users.
Scary Page (Founder, Google) :
Google: Sure, let's hope that happens!
if you skip this now, you're probably skipping for life!