Jawed Karim facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jawed Karim
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Karim in August 2008
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| Born | October 28, 1979 |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign (BS) Stanford University (MS) |
| Occupation | Software engineer |
| Known for |
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| YouTube information | |
| Years active |
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| Genre | Educational |
| Subscribers | 5.4 million |
| Total views | 356 million |
| Subscriber and view counts updated as of April 27, 2025. | |
Jawed Karim (born October 28, 1979) is an American software engineer and a person who starts new internet businesses. He is famous for being one of the people who started YouTube. He was also the very first person to upload a video to the site! That first video, called "Me at the zoo", was put online on April 24, 2005. It has been watched over 360 million times. Before YouTube, Jawed worked at a company called PayPal. There, he met the other YouTube co-founders, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. He helped design important parts of PayPal, like a system to stop fraud.
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Early Life and School
Jawed Karim was born on October 28, 1979, in Merseburg, East Germany. His father is from Bangladesh and his mother is German. His dad, Naimul Karim, is a researcher. His mom, Christine, is a scientist who studies biochemistry. Jawed was the older of two brothers.
Moving to the United States
In the early 1980s, his family moved across the border within Germany. They moved because they faced racism. They grew up in Neuss, West Germany. Because they still faced racism there, Jawed and his family moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, in 1992.
Education and College
Jawed finished Saint Paul Central High School in 1997. He then went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He left college early to work at PayPal. Even though he left, he kept studying and earned his bachelor's degree in computer science. Later, he earned a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University. Besides English, he speaks German and Bengali.
Starting His Career
While in college, Jawed Karim worked as an intern at a company called Silicon Graphics. He helped manage 3D data for large projects.
Founding YouTube
In 2002, while working at PayPal, he met Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Three years later, in 2005, these three friends started the video-sharing website YouTube. Jawed Karim made the very first account on YouTube, named "jawed", on April 23, 2005. He then uploaded the first video on the website, "Me at the zoo", on the same day.
Jawed's Role at YouTube
After helping to create YouTube, Jawed decided to focus on his studies. He became a graduate student at Stanford University. He acted as an adviser to YouTube instead of being a full-time employee. Because of this, he had a smaller share in the company compared to Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.
Most people didn't know Jawed was a co-founder until Google bought YouTube in 2006. Even with a smaller share, the purchase was still a lot of money for him. He received shares worth about $64 million at that time.
Speaking About YouTube
In October 2006, Jawed gave a talk at the University of Illinois. He spoke about how YouTube started and grew very quickly. He returned to the University of Illinois in May 2008. He was the main speaker at the graduation ceremony. He was the youngest person to give that speech in the school's history.
Investments and New Ventures
In March 2008, Jawed Karim started a special fund called Youniversity Ventures. It is now known as YVentures. He started it with partners Keith Rabois and Kevin Hartz.
Investing in Companies
Jawed was one of the first people to invest in Airbnb. He put money into the company when it was just starting in April 2009. YVentures has also invested in other well-known companies like Palantir, Reddit, and Eventbrite.
Jawed's Thoughts on YouTube Changes
Sometimes, Jawed Karim has updated the description of his first video, "Me at the zoo". He uses it to share his opinions on changes YouTube makes.
Comments and Google+
In November 2013, YouTube started making people use a Google+ account to comment on videos. Many YouTube users did not like this change. A petition to stop it got over 240,000 signatures.
Jawed Karim also showed his dislike for this change. He updated his video description to say he couldn't comment anymore because he didn't want a Google+ account. Google later removed the requirement to use Google+ for comments. Google+ was eventually shut down for personal accounts in April 2019.
Dislikes and Microplastics
In November 2021, Jawed updated his video description again. He wrote, "When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube🤦♂️." This was about YouTube's decision to hide the dislike count on videos. A few days later, he added a more detailed message criticizing this decision. In February 2025, Jawed updated the video's description to talk about the danger of microplastics to the brain.
See also
In Spanish: Jawed Karim para niños
- PayPal Mafia
- History of YouTube
