Steve Chen

Steve Chen
陳士駿
Chen in May 2022
Born (1978-08-25) August 25, 1978 (age 46) [1]
NationalityAmerican
Taiwanese
Alma materUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
OccupationSoftware engineer
Known forCo-founder of YouTube & AVOS
SpousePark Ji-hyun (Jamie Chen)
Children2
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese陳士駿
Simplified Chinese陈士骏
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChén Shìjùn
Gwoyeu RomatzyhChern Shyhjiunn
Wade–GilesCh'en Shih-chün

Steve Chen (Chinese: 陳士駿; Wade–Giles: Chen Shih-chün; born August 25, 1978)[2] is a Taiwanese-American Internet entrepreneur who is one of the co-founders and previous chief technology officer of the video-sharing website YouTube. After he co-founded the company AVOS Systems, Inc. and built the video-sharing app MixBit,[3] he joined Google Ventures in 2014.[4]

Early years and education

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Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan. When he was seven years old, he and his family immigrated to the United States[5] and settled in Prospect Heights, Illinois.[6] 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. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he studied computer science.[7]

Business career

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Chen (middle) with YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley at the 2007 All Things Digital conference

Chen was an employee at PayPal, where he first met Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Chen was also an early employee at Facebook, although he left after several months to start YouTube.[8]

In 2005, Chad Hurley, 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 as one of "The 50 people who matter now" in business.[9]

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 shares are valued at almost $1.77 billion.[10]

He and Hurley started AVOS Systems, which acquired Delicious from Yahoo! Inc.[11]

Chen (left) in an interview with Audrey Tang (2022)

Chen was listed as one of the 15 Asian Scientists To Watch by Asian Scientist Magazine on 15 May 2011.[12]

Chen started the live-streaming food network Nom.com in 2016 along with Vijay Karunamurthy.[13] In 2017, Nom.com was shut down, with its Twitter feed switched to private and its Facebook account left idle since March 2017.[14]

Awards

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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.[15]

Personal life

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In 2009, Chen married Park Ji-hyun, a Google Korea product marketing manager, who changed her name to Jamie Chen. They have two children, including a son who was born in July 2010.[16] The Chens are major supporters of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, where Jamie was appointed a trustee in July 2012.[17][18] In August 2019, the Chens moved to Taipei, Taiwan.[19][20]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Steve Chen". x.com.
  2. ^ "Steve Chen". x.com/stevechen/status/1562838188330086400.
  3. ^ "YouTube Founders Launch New Video-Sharing App MixBit". PC Magazine.
  4. ^ Crook, Jordan (June 6, 2014). "YouTube Co-Founders Split As Hurley Spins Out MixBit And Chen Joins Google Ventures". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  5. ^ "Steve Chen Archives > The Immigrant Learning Center".
  6. ^ Rowell, Rebecca (2011-01-01). YouTube: The Company and Its Founders. ABDO. ISBN 978-1-61714-813-2.
  7. ^ "Steve Chen Profile | University of Illinois 150 Years". uofi150.news-gazette.com. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  8. ^ Heath, Alex; Shontell, Alyson (February 1, 2012). "Facebook's First 20 Employees: Where Are They Now?". Business Insider. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
  9. ^ Staff, Business 2.0 (June 21, 2006). "The 50 people who matter now". CNN. {{cite news}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Helft, Miguel (7 February 2007). "YouTube's Payoff: Hundreds of Millions for the Founders". The New York Times.
  11. ^ Rosoff, Matt. "YouTube Cofounder Steve Chen Explains What He's Doing With His New Company". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  12. ^ "The Ultimate List Of 15 Asian Scientists To Watch – Steve Chen". AsianScientist.com. May 15, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
  13. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (March 9, 2016). "Nom.com, a foodie-focused live video network from YouTube's Steve Chen, launches with $4.7M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
  14. ^ O'Brien, Chris (April 18, 2018). "YouTube cofounder Steve Chen's foodie livestream network Nom.com has shut down". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
  15. ^ "2018 Laureates Announced". The Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  16. ^ "YouTube Founder Married Korean Woman". The Chosunilbo. January 19, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  17. ^ "Asian Art Museum". www.asianart.org. Archived from the original on 2019-06-27. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  18. ^ "Asian Art Museum Appoints Seven New Trustees" (PDF).[permanent dead link]
  19. ^ Bryan Chou (14 November 2019). "Youtube Co-founder Steve Chen: "It's great time for Taiwan to step up."". International Entrepreneur Initiative Taiwan: IEIT. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  20. ^ Akito Tanaka (21 May 2021). "YouTube co-founder Steve Chen bets on Taiwan for next startup". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
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