What was the creator's motivation behind the first video on YouTube?

The video simply features Karim standing in front of elephants at the San Diego Zoo and talking about their trunks for about 18 seconds.

As for motivation, it seems that the video was uploaded more as an experiment or demonstration of the platform rather than with a specific purpose or motivation in mind. YouTube was initially created as a platform for easily sharing videos online, and "Me at the zoo" served as an early example of how users could upload their own videos and share them with others.