Named as TIME magazine's ‘CEO of the Year 2025’, YouTube chief Neal Mohan went head-to-head against a youtuber to test each other's knowledge of Google's video sharing platform.
In a playful social media video for the publication, the Indian ethnicity executive faced off against ‘Challenge Accepted’ host Michelle Khare in a round of Trivia Tube, showcasing how well he knows his company. Read along and check if you can also answer all these trivia questions correctly:
Testing Neal Mohan's knowledge of YouTube
YouTube chief Neal Mohan and Youtuber Michelle Khare bantered and tested each other's knowledge of YouTube in a trivia quiz video posted to Instagram. Here's how they fared:
What was YouTube originally conceived as before it became a video sharing platform?
Asking Khare the question, Mohan said that while he knew the answer to what YouTube was developed as in its early stages, he did not know the name of the first stage product.
“Transparently, I only know YouTube as the video sharing platform of today. Perhaps, before then, it was a blogging site. I'm just taking a wild guess here,” Khare guessed. To which Mohan responded: “That is a good guess, but not right. It was a video dating site (so I knew that part), but I did not know that it was called Tune In, Hook Up.”
What is the name of the first ever video published to YouTube?
Answering this question correctly, Mohan shared that the first ever video published on YouTube was called “‘Me at the zoo’, a 19-second video, uploaded, 20 years ago by one of the founder-engineers Jawed”.
Khare added, “One of the first engineers of YouTube and I think it has over 300 million views.”
The video published on 24 April 2005, is still available on YouTube and has till time of writing over 376.7 million views and 18 million likes.
Which viral video inspired the term going viral?
Khare answered this question with a “wild guess”, that it was “maybe a science video about how quickly viruses spread”.
Mohan called it a good guess, “but incorrect” and then provided the answer: “It was the ‘Evolution of Dance’. It's been around a long time. It's like 15 years I think at this point.”
The 19-year-old clip on YouTube has till time of writing amassed over 1.4 million likes, and 314 million views.
WATCH: We tested how well YouTube CEO knows YouTube
In the TIME feature, Mohan said he is focused on one thing: Running YouTube. "The entire dynamics of the entire media industry are changing before our eyes... It's incredibly disruptive, and if you don't adapt, you can be left by the wayside. The fundamental North Star of how I think about content policies and moderation in general on YouTube is to give everyone a voice,” he said.
Neal Mohan — YouTube's ‘quite’ and ‘hard to ruffle’ CEO
In its announcement on 8 December, TIME magazine described Neal Mohan as “quiet-spoken, deliberative, hard to ruffle”. At Google since 2008, Neal Mohan was the chief product officer of the YouTube before he became the CEO in 2023, taking over from founding employee Susan Wojcicki. Notably, he is also a director on coffee chain Starbucks' board.
Born in Indiana (Lafayette), Mohan moved to Lucknow (India) with his parent in 1985, when he was 12.
As per his LinkedIn profile, Mohan completed his graduation degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1996, and his MBA from the same Ivy League school in 2005, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. An Arjay Miller Scholar at Stanford Graduate School of Business is one among the top 10% of the graduating MBA class recognised for outstanding academic achievement in a program.
Mohan is also an advisory council member of Stanford GSB and Council on Foreign Relations.