When it comes to who is the first to upload a video to YouTube, your bet wins Jawed Karim. Although not too many have heard of him, he is an entrepreneur and one of the founders of YouTube. He’s the brain behind some of the platform’s real-time anti-fraud systems. Karim is also an investor and worked with PayPal before he created the video-sharing platform with Steven Chen and Chad Hurley. Here is a brief account of his life, including facts about his wife, his wealth, and what you have.
Jawed Karim Biography
Jawed Karim was born on October 28, 1979, in Merseburg, Germany. While his mother Christine Karim (a biochemistry professor) is German, his father Naimul Karim (a chemist) is Bangladeshi. He grew up at the side of a brother – Ilias Karim.
He remained in Germany until 1992 when his family immigrated to Minnesota where he received his education at Saint Paul Central High School. From there he transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied computer science. Much later he moved to Stanford University, where he earned a master’s degree in this field.
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As the least known co-founder of YouTube, Karim was one of the first people to work for PayPal while still a student. Here he also met his future business partners Chad Hurley, who helped develop the PayPal logo, and Steve Chen.
After eBay bought the payment service, Karim and the other two co-founders decided to start a database project in 2002.
During a Super Bowl performance in 2004, Janet Jackson had a closet malfunction that exposed her breasts. Although it was something that caught the attention of the world, Karim tried to put the video of the accident on the Internet in 2005 without success. It also proved to be very difficult to get other videos, for example for tsunamis and other world events.
That’s what gave Karim, who was 26 years old at the time, the idea to set up a platform to share videos, and so he suggested the idea to his two other friends, who agreed and immediately got to work.
Since the idea was originally his, Jawed Karim wanted to go to computer school more than anything else at the time, so he retired from running the new company, as the three decided that Hurley should become the CEO, while the Chief Technology Officer’s office would go to Chen. In turn, he would still be a part of it, even though he would only have small shares.
On Saturday, April 23, 2005, at 8:27 pm, Karim posted the first video on YouTube under the user name “Jawed”. The video was called “Me at the Zoo” and showed him describing elephants. It was shot by his friend, Yakov Lapitsky.
In 2006 the company was sold to Google for $1.65 billion.
He continued to do other things like photography and writing. In 2008 he founded Youniversity Ventures together with Keith Rabois and Kevin Hartz. The company’s goal is to provide innovative products to help people access mentorship and capital.
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What’s His Net Worth?
Jawed Karim has a net worth estimated at $140 million. The programmer earned his net worth mainly with the company YouTube, which he co-founded. After it was bought up by Google, he gave Karim 137,443 shares of Google at the time, which was the equivalent of $64 million, but with the steady increase in the company’s shares, his share is now more than $140 million.
Steven Chen, for his part, received $301 million of his 700,000 shares in Google. As a result, his net worth is now $700 million, while the last founding member of the video-sharing platform, Chad Hurley, received $334 million from the sale of the company.
Wife of The YouTube Co-Founder
The one who always wanted to be in the background and not in the spotlight, about the private life of the YouTube co-founder is not so much known. Nevertheless, he is connected with the British author Kia Abdullah, who wrote the novels Life, Love, and Assimilation (Adlibbed, 2006) and Child’s Play (2009).
However, the two are no longer together, as Abdullah is now with the photographer Peter Watson, who was described as her partner. For his part, it is unknown whether Jawed Karim has a wife or even a girlfriend.