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Steve Chen, Founder of YouTube. Photo by Rico Shen.

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Steve Chen

Steve Chen is a Taiwanese-American internet entrepreneur. He is known for being a  co-founder of YouTube, alongside his two partners; Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. He  also co-founded AVOS Systems with Hurley and built MixBit, a video-sharing app.

Chen’s software engineering prowess and entrepreneurial skills have placed him on various  lists, such as Business 2.0’s ’50 people who matter now’ in 2006, and Asian Scientist Magazine’s ’15 Asian Scientists to watch’ in 2011.

Currently residing with his family in Taiwan, he is a supporter of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. His innovative technological contributions to the various internet creations cannot be understated. Here are the top 10 amazing facts about Steve Chen.

1. Steve Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan

Taipei, Taiwan. Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas.

He was born on August 18, 1978. He stayed there for about 8 years, after which his family migrated to the United States. They settled in Illinois.

Steve attended middle school at River Trails Middle School. He went to John Jersey High School for freshman year and later attended Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. He majored in computer science at the University of Illinois.

2. Steve Chen first worked at PayPal and Facebook before founding YouTube

His classmates at the University of Illinois founded PayPal. Max Levchin, one of its founders, offered him a job. He quit college, just a few months before his graduation, to go and work there as a software engineer.

He also had a stint at Facebook. While working at PayPal, he met his two friends, Chad and Karim.

The three would later co-found YouTube. Jawed Karim had studied computer science together with Chen at the University of Illinois.

Chad Hurley worked in eBay’s PayPal division. He was the artistic type, with one of his tasks being to design the original PayPal logo.

3. Chen and his pals founded YouTube in 2005

Composite image of YouTube’s founders; from left to right: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. Photo by user:Ianmacm.

Chen, Karim, and Hurley were at a dinner party when the idea of creating a video-sharing platform was allegedly birthed. They realized that it was  hard to find or share videos online.

They began working on the idea and in December 2005, they officially launched YouTube. At first, they ran it from their garages.

Karim was the first to upload a video on the site. The video is titled ‘Me at the zoo’.  It was filmed in the San Diego zoo. It currently has over 200 million views.

However, he stepped away from the scene to complete his graduate degree at Stanford University, only acting as an informal advisor to YouTube.

Hurley was primarily responsible for tagging and video sharing aspects.

Chen became YouTube’s first Chief Technology Officer tasked with ensuring that the site could support incoming traffic and continue running.

4. Steve Chen and his partner Hurley sold YouTube to Google Inc. in October 2006

YouTube Logo, 2021. Photo by Virajlakshabandara.

This was almost a year after its founding. They sold it for approximately 1.65 billion USD. Chen and Hurley received an almost similar amount of shares while Karim received a much lower share.

Chen received 625,366 shares of Google directly and an additional 68,721 through a trust. He and Hurley stayed at YouTube after its acquisition up until 2009. Chen remained at Google, however, until 2011.

5. He co-founded AVOS Systems

This was in 2011, having left Google. He partnered with his friend Chad Hurley to found AVOS Systems, an incubator platform for app developers. Chen was interested in the latter and not another video-sharing platform.

The two also built up MixBit, a video-sharing service. When Chad wanted to pivot AVOS Systems into MixBit, Chen left. AVOS Systems changed from an incubator into a single company working only on MixBit in 2014.

Chen went back to Google, joining Google Ventures as a consultant. Google Ventures focuses on investing in startup technology companies and helping them grow.

6. He founded Nom Labs

This was, interestingly, a video-sharing website, mainly for sharing cooking videos. He co-founded it with Vijay Karunamurthy. However, in 2017, the site was shut down. This was a year after its development.

7. Steve Chen has received mentions in various lists for his achievements

Business 2.0, named him as one of ‘The 50 people who matter now’ in business, in 2006. This was a monthly publication based in San Francisco, California. It was last published in 2007.

Chen was also featured in ‘The Ultimate List of 15 Asian Scientists to Watch’ by the Asian Scientist Magazine in 2011.

8. Steve Chen has received awards

The breast star of the Order of Lincoln. Awarded by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the Order of Lincoln is the highest honor given by the State of Illinois. Photo by Evadb.

He was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois in 2018.  He was awarded the Order of Lincoln. This is the highest honor by the State.

He has also received the Carnegie Foundation’s ‘Great Immigrants Award,’ to appreciate his contributions to the American community through technology as an immigrant.

9. He is a member of the PayPal Mafia

This is a group of incredibly successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. They began by working under PayPal’s founders; Max Levchin and Peter Thiel.

Some of them include Elon Musk, David O. Sacks (founder of Geni.com and Yammer), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn founder), Jawed Karim, and Chad Hurley. They have founded technology companies.

10. He is married to Park Ji-Hyun, who assumed the name Jamie Chen

Kamran Elahian, Steve Chen, and Jamie Chen. Photo by Joi Ito.

The two met in 2008, in Korea.  Park was the marketing manager of Google Korea. Steve had visited to promote YouTube.

The two later married and now have two children.  Park assumed the name Jamie Chen. They lived in San Francisco until 2019, when they moved back to Taipei, Taiwan. They currently reside there.

Steve Chen’s technological entrepreneurship has changed how people interact. It is easy to share videos online, stream, and easily access information on YouTube.