Psy’s “Gangnam Style” reaches 500 million views in world’s shortest time

SEOUL--(Korea Newswire)--When on January 27th Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor” reached 500 million views on YouTube, the media description that “it accomplished 500 million views as the second instance in history within a year (to be exact, 362 days)” created a buzz. The world record with 500 million views of “On the Floor” and its achievement in less than a year was a surprise, simply beyond belief.

Meanwhile, the world’s first 500 million views was reached on March 28th, 2011 by Justin Bieber’s “Baby”, and it took 403 days. But it took Psy the international singer only 98 days to make the fourth landmark achievement in history. “Gangnam Style” was practically a mission impossible, its speed three times that of “On the Floor’.
 
It’s not so impossible to achieve 100 million views in a short period of time or reach 300 million views over a long period of time. When certain points like 100 million and 200 million views have been reached, however, it is close to impossible to continuously register an astronomical amount of 10 million or so views daily. So, up until now only three videos have recorded 500 million views on YouTube and took minimum 362 days to do that, while future videos are expected to take 2 to 5 years to reach 500 million views.
 
Psy’s “Gangnam Style” took 52 days to get 100 million views and took 47 days to add 400 million to it. It translates to nearly 10 million views each day. And this immortal record seems to be gigantic, unbeatable for next two decades. KWRI(The Korean Wave Research Institute) estimates that Gangnam Style will take 10 to 20 days to overtake 600 million views of “On the Floor”, currently global No. 2, and 30 to 60 days to surpass 790 million views of “Baby”, the world’s top.
 
Director Han Koo-hyun of Korean Wave Research Institute predicted a greater success for “Gangnam Style”, saying that “Daily views for “On the Floor” and “Baby” are each 200,000 to 300,00 views while ”Gangnam Style” collects 8 million to 10 million daily. So I’m positive that the unprecedented 1 billion hits will be preempted by Psy, the self-styled B class singer.”

The Korean Wave Research Institute went ahead of the curve to tell a local daily that “Gangnam Style” would change the paradigm of the Korean tourism on Aug. 20, and gave its prediction on Sep. 14 as the first instance in the world that “Gangnam Style” would achieve 500 million views.
 
Billboard, the world’s top music chart discloses its No. 1 piece every week. And around 3,160 songs have made it to the top of the chart for last six decades. Taking account of the overlaps, so far over a thousand singers or groups have captured the honor of No. 1 on Billboard. The glory of topping the chart is not like it used to be, in this age of New Media represented by social networking services such as YouTube, Facebook, and twitter. For “Gangnam Style”, the beginning and end of its popularity transpire on YouTube, the icon of the age of New Media, and the most-viewed on it would make the one and the only record globally. So, now there’s no comparing No. 1 on Billboard and No. 1 on YouTube, since the latter has greater significance.
 
In the meantime, in Japan, they express doubts on the globally dominant status of “Gangnam Style” on YouTube, generating conspiracy theories about its possible manipulation. Such an outrageous argument is tantamount to doubting a world record in an Olympics marathon. Rigging is perhaps possible if it is a local portal, but to express skepticism toward the views generated from 222 countries on YouTube, the world’s largest user-created contents sharing site should be viewed as a primary school kid’s jealousy and envy. Such interest in conspiracy theories about rigging in Japan only attests to the great significance of the record on YouTube.

On 30 Most-Viewed Videos on YouTube, there’s a Japanese video titled “An Experiment”. As of Oct. 19, it registers whomping 237,170,000 or so views (with “AKB48” at 80 million views as the second most-viewed as a Japan-made video), and it contains the most grotesque and preposterous content of all 30 most-viewed videos on YouTube. It shows a Japanese woman putting Mentos in coke to make it explode, another lowly example showing the video-related preference of the Japanese.

Korean Wave Research Institute(KWRI)(www.haanryu.com)

Korean Wave, the front runner of Korean culture reaching out to the world. Korean Wave that has the foundation of excellence and mobility of Korean culture has captivated the people on the world to add its power on daily basis has become the representative culture icon of Korea. Korean Wave Research Institute (KWRI) is committed to undertake aggressive effort to expand the power of Korean Wave for entire world by undertaking the research on Korean Wave, survey of influence and analysis of demand, presentation of advancement direction for steady advancement and expansion of power for Korean Wave. KWRI will place its best effort for delivering graceful, friendly and powerful Korean culture and unlimited advancement of Korean Wave through profound understanding and research of Korean Wave.

Website: http://www.haanryu.com

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