Social media giant YouTube is celebrating its ninth birthday.

YouTube has made a huge splash since its co-founder, Jawed Karim, uploaded the first-ever video to the now-popular network on April 23, 2005.

Uploading the clip under the username “jawed,” the 18-second video shows a young Karim standing in front of an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo and staring into the camera.

“The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks,” Karim says matter-of-factly. “And that’s cool.”

The video has been viewed more than 14 million times since being uploaded nine years ago.

Today, YouTube boasts more than one billion unique users each month with 100 hours of video being uploaded every minute.

“It’s the ability to post videos, to find videos, and to find people,” says Elizabeth Dubois, a social media expert in Halifax. “It’s something other sites don’t offer.”

YouTube offers users everything from funny animal clips and popular music videos to tutorials and video blogs.

“Primary use would be entertainment I think, secondary use would be education,” says YouTube user Matt Flewwelling. “I find it really great to look up personal things, like how to fix your car.”

“You’ll see a lot of professors posting some parts of their lectures, or if I need basic stuff, like I forget how to do a math equation,” says YouTube user David Krr.

But, like anything, YouTube has some cons as well as pros.

While the network may be filled with funny and informative videos, there is also the potential for bullying, as viewers can leave any comments they like, with little to no consequences.

“A lot of…bullying that some people have seen in different comment threads,” says Dubois. “It depends on the video, it depends on who is participating, but it is certainly not something to be ignored.”

The website has also come under fire for copyright infringement. Users have uploaded entire movies, TV shows and music to the site, without the original creator’s consent.

“Well, there’s been big battles about that in the U.S. courts in particular, so the poster is primarily responsible and YouTube takes steps to, they have systems to try and deal with this,” says lawyer Rob Aske.

But YouTube user Samantha Fitch says the only negative impact it has had on her life is that it can eat up precious time.

“It distracts me from my studies because I watch cute cat videos all day.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Matt Woodman and CTVNews.ca