Ali Gasymov: From School Hobby to 100,000 Users — The Success Story of the YouTube Tags Extension
Ali Gasymov is a young IT entrepreneur and programmer who managed to turn a school hobby into a sought-after international product. His browser extension, YouTube Tags, is now used by more than 100,000 YouTube creators worldwide, including users from Japan, the United States, and Brazil. The story of YouTube Tags began when Ali, as a high school student, developed the first version of the extension at just 16 years old. After finishing school, he immediately started working as a programmer, skipping university, and continued to develop his project.
During this time, Ali spoke at leading tech conferences such as VolgaJS 2020, Hot Frontend 2021, and HolyJS 2022—the largest frontend conference in the CIS. One of his key achievements was creating the Telegram protocol in JavaScript, which Ali released as open source under the name @mtproto/core. However, his main focus remained on developing YouTube Tags. During a major YouTube redesign, Ali single-handedly and promptly updated the extension, which allowed him to outpace competitors and maintain a leading position. The product added support for the 10 most popular international languages and became available for all major browsers—Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Edge.
Today, YouTube Tags helps bloggers around the world optimize their video workflow and increase their reach. The geography of its users is impressive: the highest demand for the service comes from content creators in Japan, the United States, and Brazil. “What started as a hobby project is turning into a real business. YouTube channel owners are a highly solvent audience,” notes Ali Gasymov. Currently, the project is entering an important new phase: choosing the most effective monetization model or considering a potential sale to larger industry players. Ali is confident that the demand for YouTube Tags will only grow, given the global increase in video bloggers and the development of the digital industry. Ali Gasymov continues to share his experience with the professional community and plans to further develop his products for an international audience.
Disclaimer
This material has been provided by a third party. Responsibility for the content, factual accuracy, and all visual materials rests solely with the party that supplied the content. The editorial team assumes no responsibility for any legal or other consequences arising from the publication of this material.
