Source: Fortune
Summary
YouTube’s founders, Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, sold the company to Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, with each receiving millions of dollars worth of stock. Today, YouTube’s estimated value is $550 billion, a 333x increase. The platform has become a global creator economy, turning individuals like MrBeast into household names. YouTube’s success highlights how Google overcame early issues, including operating losses and copyright lawsuits.
Our Reading
The numbers tell one story. YouTube’s sale price to Google was just a fraction of its estimated value today. Had Hurley and Chen received the same percentage of the sale today as they did in 2006, each could have walked away with more than $100 billion each. The platform’s record-setting successes highlight Google’s ability to overcome early issues. YouTube’s masterminds are far from the only business leaders that have seen their company soar after exchanging ownership. The company’s growth raises questions about whether such massive growth would have been achieved without the backing of larger corporate owners.
Author: Evan Null
