Steve Chen: The Underrated Co-Founder of YouTube

Steve Chen is best known for being one of the co-founders of YouTube, but what most people don’t know is that he was actually the brains behind the operation. Think of him as the Robin to Chad Hurley’s Batman, the Samwise Gamgee to Jawed Karim’s Frodo, or the Harry to Ron Weasley’s… well, Ron Weasley.

Despite all of his contributions to the world of online video sharing, Chen remains one of the most underrated figures in tech history. He’s like the fourth Beatle, or the fifth Ninja Turtle (seriously, who remembers Venus de Milo?).

Born in Taiwan in 1978, Chen immigrated to the US with his family when he was just 15 years old. He quickly made a name for himself in the tech world, working for companies like PayPal and Facebook before striking out on his own to create YouTube with Hurley and Karim.

Chen’s role at YouTube was crucial from the start. He was the one who came up with the initial concept for the site, which was originally designed as a video dating service (seriously, can you imagine?). He was also responsible for the site’s early design and programming, ensuring that it was intuitive and user-friendly.

But Chen’s contributions didn’t stop there. He was instrumental in developing the site’s algorithms for recommending videos, as well as its advertising platform. He also played a key role in negotiating YouTube’s sale to Google for a whopping $1.65 billion in 2006 (can you say cha-ching?).

Despite all of his accomplishments, Chen remains humble and down-to-earth. In fact, he’s so unassuming that you probably wouldn’t even recognize him if you saw him on the street (unless he was wearing a t-shirt with “I’m Steve Chen, b****es” written on it).

So next time you’re watching a viral cat video or a makeup tutorial on YouTube, take a moment to appreciate the man behind the magic. Steve Chen may not be a household name, but he’s a true tech visionary and a pioneer of online video sharing. And hey, if nothing else, he’s got a killer comb-over.