Viral video

Video views per week of a viral video (Gangnam Style), illustrating viral growth to peak weekly viewership, in this case, in the eleventh week after it was posted.[1]
Cumulative video views, leading to a lower, but relatively stable, long-term growth rate by the end of the first year.[1]

A viral video[2][3] is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.[4][5] For a video to be shareable or spreadable, it must focus on the social logics and cultural practices that have enabled and popularized these new platforms.[6]

Viral videos may be serious, and some are deeply emotional, but many more are centered on entertainment and humorous content. Notable early examples include televised comedy sketches, such as The Lonely Island's "Lazy Sunday" and "Dick in a Box", Numa Numa[7][8] videos, The Evolution of Dance,[7] Chocolate Rain[9] on YouTube; and web-only productions such as I Got a Crush... on Obama.[10] Some eyewitness events have also been caught on video and have "gone viral" such as the Battle at Kruger.[11]

One commentator called the Kony 2012 video the most viral video in history[12] (about 34,000,000 views in three days[13] and 100,000,000 views in six days[14]), but "Gangnam Style" (2012) received one billion views in five months[15][16][17] and was the most viewed video on YouTube from 2012 until "Despacito" (2017).[18]

  1. ^ a b Raw data accessed 2 September 2018 from Wayback Machine archives of YouTube video page stored by archive.org (click on year 2012 or 2013).
  2. ^ About.com. Retrieved 30 March 2016, explains how "viral," which comes from virus, largely but not wholly relates to "viral video" in an online context http://webtrends.about.com/od/howtoguides/a/Viral-Online.htm
  3. ^ "Oxford Languages | The Home of Language Data". languages.oup.com. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
  4. ^ "Definition of 'viral video'[permanent dead link]". PC Mag Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 December 2012. Updated link: https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/viral-video
  5. ^ Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Hauptmann. Viral Video Style: A Closer Look at Viral Videos on YouTube. Retrieved 30 March 2016. Paper: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~lujiang/camera_ready_papers/ICMR2014-Viral.pdf Slides: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~lujiang/resources/ViralVideos.pdf
  6. ^ Jenkins, Henry (2013). Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. NYU Press. p. 3.
  7. ^ a b "How YouTube made superstars out of everyday people". 11 April 2010. The Guardian.
  8. ^ "Guardian Viral Video Chart". 8 June 2007. The Guardian.
  9. ^ Murphy, Meagan (22 September 2010). "'Numa Numa Guy' Fronting Band, Still Single". FOX411.
  10. ^ Tapper, Jake (13 June 2007). "Music Video Has a 'Crush on Obama'". ABC News. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  11. ^ BBC News states "Almost 9.5m people have already watched the video, dubbed the Battle at Kruger, which was filmed by US tourist Dave Budzinski while he was on a guided safari." Published 9 Aug 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2016 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6938516.stm
  12. ^ Flock, Elizabeth (4 April 2012). "Kony 2012 screening in Uganda met with anger, rocks thrown at screen". The Washington Post.
  13. ^
  14. ^ "Kony most viral". Mashable. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  15. ^ "How 'Gangnam Style' Went Viral [Graphic]". Scientific American. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  16. ^ Weng, Lilian; Menczer, Filippo; Ahn, Yong-Yeol (2013). "Virality Prediction and Community Structure in Social Networks". Scientific Reports. 3: 2522. arXiv:1306.0158. Bibcode:2013NatSR...3E2522W. doi:10.1038/srep02522. PMC 3755286. PMID 23982106.
  17. ^ Laird, Sam (5 September 2012). "Gangnam Style! The Anatomy of a Viral Sensation [INFOGRAPHIC]". Mashable. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  18. ^ "YouTube's 10 years of hits: Global recognition at last for Rick Astley". The Register. Retrieved 1 June 2016.