Steve Chen (; born August 25, 1978) is a Taiwanese-American
Internet entrepreneur who is one of the co-founders and previous
chief technology officer of the video-sharing website
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. After having co-founded the company
AVOS Systems, Inc. and built the video-sharing app
MixBit
MixBit was a video sharing service created by Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, two of the co-founders of YouTube. It was released on August 8, 2013. MixBit let users create dynamic shared videos, and competed with Vine (owned by Twitter) and Instag ...
, he joined
Google Ventures in 2014.
Early years and education
Chen was born in
Taipei
Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
. When he was seven years old, he and his family immigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and settled in
Prospect Heights, Illinois. He went to
River Trails Middle School in
Mount Prospect for his middle school education and
John Hersey High School in
Arlington Heights for his freshman year of high school. For his final three years of high school, he attended the
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in
Aurora, Illinois
Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage, Kane, Kendall, and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located primarily in DuPage and Kane counties, it is the second most populous city in Illinois, a ...
. At the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...
, he studied
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
.
Business career
Chen was an employee at
PayPal, where he first met
Chad Hurley
Chad Meredith Hurley (born January 24, 1977) is an American webmaster and businessman who serves as the advisor and former chief executive officer (CEO) of YouTube. He also co-founded MixBit. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0's "5 ...
and
Jawed Karim. Chen was also an early employee at
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
, although he left after several months to start YouTube.
In 2005,
Chad Hurley
Chad Meredith Hurley (born January 24, 1977) is an American webmaster and businessman who serves as the advisor and former chief executive officer (CEO) of YouTube. He also co-founded MixBit. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0's "5 ...
,
Jawed Karim and Steve Chen founded YouTube, with Chen having the position of chief technology officer. In June 2006, Chen was named by
Business 2.0
''Business 2.0'' was a monthly magazine publication founded by magazine entrepreneur Chris Anderson, Mark Gross, and journalist James Daly in order to chronicle the rise of the "New Economy". First published in July 1998, the magazine was sold ...
as one of "The 50 people who matter now" in business.
On October 16, 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to
Google, Inc. for $1.65 billion. Chen received 625,366 shares of Google and an additional 68,721 in a trust as part of the sale. As of September 2021, the
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
shares are valued at almost $1.77 billion.
He and Hurley started
AVOS Systems, which acquired
Delicious from
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Mana ...
Inc.
Chen was listed as one of the 15 Asian Scientists To Watch by
Asian Scientist Magazine
''Asian Scientist'' is an English language science and technology magazine published in Singapore.
History and profile
''Asian Scientist'' was launched in March 2011 by Asian Scientist Publishing Pte Ltd (now known as Wildtype Media Group Pte L ...
on 15 May 2011.
Chen started the live streaming food network Nom.com in 2016 along with Vijay Karunamurthy. In 2017, Nom.com was shut down, with its
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
feed switched to private and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
account left idle since March, 2017.
Awards
Chen was inducted as a Laureate of
The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the
Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2018.
Personal life
Chen married Park Ji-hyun, who is now Jamie Chen, a Google Korea product marketing manager, in 2009. They now live in
Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...
with their two children. One son was born in July 2010. The Chens are major supporters of the
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, where Jamie was appointed a trustee in July 2012. From August 2019, Chen moved back to
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
and resides there since then, along with his family.
See also
*
Jawed Karim
*
Chad Hurley
Chad Meredith Hurley (born January 24, 1977) is an American webmaster and businessman who serves as the advisor and former chief executive officer (CEO) of YouTube. He also co-founded MixBit. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0's "5 ...
*
List of Taiwanese Americans
*
Taiwanese Americans
References
External links
Steve Chen's YouTube profileSteve Chen, the local boy that created YouTube�� Taipei Times, October 8, 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Steve
1978 births
American people of Taiwanese descent
American chief technology officers
American computer businesspeople
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
Businesspeople in computing
Taiwanese company founders
Businesspeople from Taipei
Google employees
Internet pioneers
Living people
Members of Committee of 100
PayPal people
People from Prospect Heights, Illinois
People with acquired American citizenship
Taiwanese emigrants to the United States
Grainger College of Engineering alumni
YouTube
YouTube channels launched in 2005