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Reading Passage

The Youngsters Behind YouTube:

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley by Evan Carmichael "Everybody aspires to be a star:' says Steve Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant who came to the United States with his family in hopes of a better life. Chen's aspirations became a reality when he, along with Pennsylvania-born Chad Hurley, created what is today the world's largest s online video website. YouTube has now become a global sensation, propelling both Hurley and Chen to the top of Business 2.0's list of "The 50 People Who Matter Now."From holding promotions such as the iPod Nano daily giveaway to having an external video player that can be placed on any website and can link back to their own, Hurley and Chen created a platform that continues to grow at an exponential rate.s Well-Timed: Some have suggested that YouTube's success was due to a 70 perfect storm6 of environmental factors.User-Oriented: Hurley and Chen knew from personal experience how difficult it was to upload and share videos online.From the lessening of the cost of bandwidth and digital cameras to the

growth of online social networks, Hurley and Chen created a company that was right for the times.And so, instead of overloading its pages and videos with

advertisements, Hurley and Chen are being careful and testing the waters as to which ads will work, and where.the birth of a revolution beginning of a dramatic change in the way things are done 4 Chapter 11 The Youngsters Behind YouTube Viral: Both YouTube's marketing strategy and growth as a result have 65 been viral in nature.By. prioritizing its users' needs and being as easy and interactive as possible, YouTube was able to find a loyal audience.From long-lost '80s music videos, to political speeches, to the current events of

today, you are almost guaranteed to find it on YouTube.It has become the fastest-growing video sharing site of all time, all the while outliving the critics' claims that it

is just 85 another teenage fad that will soon die down.With the Google buyout, the company faces a more uncertain

future in terms of how it will operate and who will call the shots.that numbers in the millions.

Reading Passage

The Youngsters Behind YouTube:

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley by Evan Carmichael "Everybody aspires to be a star:' says Steve Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant who came to the United States with his family in hopes of a better life. Chen's aspirations became a reality when he, along with Pennsylvania-born Chad Hurley, created what is today the world's largest s online video website. YouTube has now become a global sensation, propelling both Hurley and Chen to the top of Business 2.0's list of "The 50 People Who Matter Now." YouTube was also named TIME magazine's 2006 "Invention of the Year: When Hurley and Chen decided to sell their company, they did so for a hefty price tag of $1.65 billion, 10 Steve Shih Chen was born in August 1978 in Taiwan, where he lived until he was eight years old. His family then emigrated to the U.S., where Chen attended John Hersey High School and later the Illinois Math and Science Academy. After graduating from high school, Chen enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pursue a degree 15 in computer science. But it would be a part-time job he was hired for at a small e-commerce start-up called PayPal that would change his life forever. Chad Meredith Hurley was born in 1977 as the middle child I of parents Donald and JoAnn Hurley. His father was a financial consultant, while 20 his mother worked as a local schoolteacher. Chad, along with his older sister and younger brother, grew up near Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Twin Valley High School in 1995, where his mother continues to teach in the gifted program, 2 Hurley enrolled in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania to pursue a bachelor's degree in fine art. 2s Before graduating from the university, Hurley also applied for a job at PayPal. He was flown to California and, as part of his job interview, was asked to design a logo for the young company that would demonstrate his artistic abilities. Hurley got the job, and the logo he designed remains PayPal's official logo to this day, I the middle child the second-born child in a family with three children 2 gifted program a program of study designed for exceptionally intelligent students AUDI@ DOWNLOAD Maps pages 161-162 Culture and Language Notes page 145 3 30 It was while working at PayPal that Hurley and Chen became fast friends. 3 They began to spend their free time discussing several different business ideas. When eBay purchased PayPal for $1.54 billion, the two received large bonuses for their role in growing the small start-up. They decided to use their money to create their own venture. With 35 Chen's engineering skills and Hurley's creativity, they thought forming a company together was a plausible idea. In January 2005, Hurley and Chen attended a friend's dinner party in San Francisco. They had taken a few digital videos of the event and wanted to share them with each other the next day, but could not find a 40 good means to do so. The files were too big to e-mail, and posting them online would take hours. With that, Hurley and Chen had their first idea for a sustainable business. Using the money they had received from the PayPal buyout, Chen and Hurley decided to create YouTube, to make uploading and sharing videos online as easy as anyone could want. It 45 was the birth of a revolution. 4 "We're not in a hurry:' Hurley once said. "We're interested in building our community. We're trying to improve discovery. We're trying to improve the experience for people on our site." They might not have been in a hurry, but their site sure grew in one. Today, YouTube has almost half so of the online video market, and it is still growing. How did a university dropout and a boy who loved to draw become the industry leaders they are considered now? User-Oriented: Hurley and Chen knew from personal experience how difficult it was to upload and share videos online. And that was why they 55 decided to create You Tube. They wanted to create a website that others like themselves would find useful. By. prioritizing its users' needs and being as easy and interactive as possible, YouTube was able to find a loyal audience. that numbers in the millions. Unique: When you visit YouTube.com, you are most likely searching 60 for something that you cannot find anywhere else. From long-lost '80s music videos, to political speeches, to the current events of

today, you are almost guaranteed to find it on YouTube. And that is why people keep coming back for more.

the birth of a revolution beginning of a dramatic change in the way things are done 4 Chapter 11 The Youngsters Behind YouTube Viral: Both YouTube's marketing strategy and growth as a result have 65 been viral in nature. From holding promotions such as the iPod Nano daily giveaway to having an external video player that can be placed on any website and can link back to their own, Hurley and Chen created a platform that continues to grow at an exponential rate.s Well-Timed: Some have suggested that YouTube's success was due to a 70 perfect storm6 of environmental factors. More to the point, it was Hurley and Chen's ability to not only notice, but also take advantage. of that storm that pushed them to the top. From the lessening of the cost of bandwidth and digital cameras to the

growth of online social networks, Hurley and Chen created a company that was right for the times. 75 Focused:

Hurley and Chen were never out to create a money-making machine. They wanted to create a sustainable business,

but also one that meant something to its users. And so, instead of overloading its pages and videos with

advertisements, Hurley and Chen are being careful and testing the waters as to which ads will work, and where. They

are refusing 80 to lose sight of 7 their number one priority, their user. YouTube put the right technology out there to

meet a need, but it did so much more than that. It created a simple and unique way for people to connect with each

other. It has become the fastest-growing video sharing site of all time, all the while outliving the critics' claims that it

is just 85 another teenage fad that will soon die down. With the Google buyout, the company faces a more uncertain

future in terms of how it will operate and who will call the shots. A One thing is for sure, however, and that is that

Hurley and Chen are still here, and their business is still booming.