Steve Chen (YouTube Founder): “Spain and Europe are going to be at the core of global tech and innovation”

Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, is one of the Top Voices at the seventh edition of VDS and one of the most influential tech entrepreneurs of the digital age. During the international tech event taking place on October 23rd and 24th at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Chen will share his insights and experiences as the creator of the disruptive platform that transformed the way the world consumes video content online.

Steve Chen shared in an interview for the EU-Startups podcast that his journey began in Taiwan, where he was born in 1978, before moving to the United States with his family as a child. He studied computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduating, Chen worked for major tech companies like PayPal and Facebook, becoming part of the famed ‘PayPal Mafia,’ a group of entrepreneurs renowned for their innovation in Silicon Valley. It was in this environment that he took his first steps alongside some of the most creative minds in the tech world.

However, it was in 2005 that his career took a historic turn when he co-founded YouTube with Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. The video platform revolutionized how we consume multimedia content and played a pivotal role in shaping the entertainment and information industries. Chen fondly recalls one of YouTube’s early successes: “The moment I remember most fondly from YouTube’s early days was when the first videos started hitting a million views.” One such video was posted by Nike, utilizing the platform for an innovative viral marketing strategy: “The video featured Ronaldinho juggling a football, and they uploaded it under a pseudonym, JoeB or something similar, so people would watch it and connect it with the Nike brand. That was a huge win for us.“

Just a year after its launch, in 2006, YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in stock, marking one of the biggest successes in Silicon Valley’s history. After the sale, Steve continued to work at Google for a time, helping to integrate YouTube into the company’s infrastructure. Yet, despite this success, Chen didn’t stop there—he continued to explore new opportunities. He co-founded AVOS Systems and later launched MixBit, a video recording and editing platform, proving that his innovative spirit remained strong.

During his participation in this seventh edition of VDS, one of the most important tech events in Southern Europe, Chen will discuss his vision for the future and the exciting role that Europe and Spain are playing on the global stage of technological innovation. “I think, in many ways, Spain and Europe will be at the heart of what the rest of the world does in terms of adopting new products, ideas, and ways of living. In that sense, they have an advantage that can’t be bought overnight. It’s something that comes with being in Spain, and it will be fascinating to watch,” he says.

Chen also highlights the value of events like VDS, which bring together entrepreneurs, investors, and tech creatives in one space: “For me, it’s about capturing that energy, that atmosphere you get when a group of people is focused on creating something. When you have everyone in a room working on the next wave of technology and new products, it’s always exciting. I’m definitely looking forward to experiencing that.”

Lastly, Chen acknowledges that there are now many emerging tech hubs around the world: “There are many other parts of the world discovering that they too can be the place where the seeds of the next big global startups are planted. It’s a very exciting time for innovation.”