# Steve Chen

> Steve Chen is a Taiwanese-American Internet entrepreneur and software engineer best known as co-founder and former CTO of YouTube, which he and his PayPal colleagues built in 2005 and sold to Google for $1.65 billion just 18 months later. Born in Taipei and immigrating to the U.S. at age seven, Chen dropped out of the University of Illinois computer science program to join PayPal as one of its first 10 employees. After revolutionizing online video sharing with YouTube, he co-founded AVOS Systems, launched the video app MixBit, joined Google Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence, and eventually returned to Taiwan to nurture the island's startup ecosystem and connect Taiwanese entrepreneurs with Silicon Valley.

- **Role:** Startup Ecosystem Builder (Taiwan)
- **Organizations:** YouTube, PayPal, Google Ventures, AVOS Systems, Committee of 100
- **From:** Taipei, Taiwan
- **Nationality:** Taiwanese-American
- **Education:** Computer Science (incomplete), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- **Known for:** Co-founded YouTube and served as Chief Technology Officer, Sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, Named one of Time Magazine's Most Influential People in 2007

## Career timeline

- **1999** — Dropped out of University of Illinois to join PayPal in Silicon Valley as one of first 10 employees
- **2005** — Co-founded YouTube with Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, serving as Chief Technology Officer
- **2006** — Named by Business 2.0 as one of 'The 50 people who matter now' in business
- **2006** — Sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion, receiving 625,366 shares of Google plus 68,721 in trust
- **2007** — Named one of Time Magazine's 'Most Influential People'
- **2011** — Co-founded AVOS Systems with Chad Hurley to pursue digital media projects
- **2013** — Launched MixBit video capture app
- **2014** — Joined Google Ventures as entrepreneur-in-residence after AVOS layoffs
- **2016** — Started Nom.com, a live-streaming food network
- **2017** — Shut down Nom.com
- **2019** — Returned to Taiwan to develop startup ecosystem and connect Taiwanese entrepreneurs with Silicon Valley
- **2026** — Spoke at Stanford Graduate School of Business warning about short-form video's impact on attention spans

## Achievements

- Co-founded YouTube and served as Chief Technology Officer
- Sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in 2006
- Named one of Time Magazine's Most Influential People in 2007
- Named by Business 2.0 as one of 'The 50 people who matter now' in 2006
- Inducted as Laureate by The Lincoln Academy of Illinois with Order of Lincoln award
- Inducted into University of Illinois Engineering Hall of Fame
- Revolutionized online video sharing and created platform with billions of users
- One of PayPal's first 10 employees
- Entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Spoke at Stanford Graduate School of Business about social media's impact on children, warning that short-form video content leads to shorter attention spans
- **2019** — Returned to Taiwan after decades in California to focus on developing the island's startup ecosystem and connecting Taiwanese tech talent with Silicon Valley

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevechen2/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/stevechen
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/steve-chen
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-03