Tinder might have never been a real thing if YouTube had had its way 12 years ago. Back then, YouTube was a little known website trying to play cupid to a growing internet-savvy generation. That might not be exactly what comes to mind now when you think of the billion dollar company which was acquired by Google in 2006.
According to the co-founder Steve Chen, he and his partner always wanted the site to be about videos but could never decide on what the practical application would be. Then they decided that making it a dating site was the obvious choice.
The idea was for single people to make videos introducing themselves and saying what they were looking for, said Chen. After five days no one had uploaded a single video, so the founders had to reconsider. Clearly, the change paid off. YouTube has grown into a video empire and launched the careers of several stars. The service has also expanded to include a subscription site, YouTube Red, and a dedicated gaming site.
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