Google: Gangnam Style earned $8 million from YouTube alone

K-Pop sensation Psy’s Gangnam Style has generated $8 million in revenue through YouTube alone, it has been revealed. In a rare disclosure on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, Google’s Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora revealed that the most-viewed video on YouTube of all times had made a killing in earnings off the video hosting site.

Announcing the milestone, Arora said, “Outside estimates say… (Gangnam Style) has generated over $8 million in all-in advertising deals.” The video had over 1.23 billion views as of this article, which means that the video on average is generating 0.65 cents every time someone plays it.

Arora mentioned this statistics in relation to his explanation about advertising on Google. Across YouTube, Google Search and other services, Google’s top 25 advertisers now spend an average of more than $150 million per year. Since the creator of a YouTube video gets to keep half the money generated through ads, it looks like Psy and his recording company are now richer by $4 million with money from YouTube

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Horse Dancing his way to the records

Previously, an analysis by Associated Press had pinned the worldwide earning by artiste Psy through the viral hit Gangnam Style at $7.9 million. This figure included downloads on iTunes, streaming and sales services available only in Korea. 

In December, Gangnam Style had officially become the first video ever on YouTube to garner a billion views worldwide. The catchy Korean song with its trademark horse dance was first uploaded on YouTube on July 15 and became a viral sensation instantly, with parody videos from all over the world cropping up. In just a matter of five months, Gangnam Style had surpassed YouTube hits such as Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ that has 823 million views currently, Jennifer Lopez’s ‘On the Floor’ that has 642 million views and the viral ‘Charlie bit my finger’ that has 509 million views currently.

In just a couple of months post its upload, Gangnam Style had already become a hit enough to gain a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest number of likes on a YouTube video ever, with 2.2 million of them. The song overtook competitor LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock Anthem’ to win this record. As of today, the likes stand at well over six million, and YouTube has celebrated the one billion views with a small, animated figure of Psy doing the trademark horse dance besides the number of views.

Gangnam Style became a popular celebratory style with celebrities and athletes alike dancing like Psy on the song. Arguably, one of the most popular celebrations was when the entire West Indian team danced on Gangnam Style post winning the T20 World Cup in India.

Collins Dictionary even picked ‘Gangnam Style’ as one of the Word of the Year for 2012 to be added to its list of words. CollinsDictionary.com chose one word per month in 2012 to signify the current affairs of that month, and Gangnam Style became the word for November after smashing many records.

Earlier in December, YouTube released the list of most watched videos on the site and not surprisingly, Gangnam Style was on top of the charts the world over. In India, the horse dance track came second only to home-grown Punjabi Rapper Yo! Yo! Honey Singh’s Brown Rang.