The mesmerizing dance video from South Korean K-pop performer Psy has “profound long-term implications for the traditional media ecosystem,” BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield says this morning in the kind of provocative report that makes his work a must-read. His case begins with the video’s eye-popping numbers: “Gangnam Style” has been viewed more than 430M times since it was released in mid-July, making it YouTube’s ninth-most-watched clip. It’s sure to end up much higher; its views are growing at a rate of about 10M a day. To give that some context, Greenfield notes that each episode of CBS’ NCIS — last season’s most watched regular series — attracted an average of about 22M viewers in the seven days after it aired, while the Super Bowl attracted more than 168M. Relax, Greenfield doesn’t claim that viewers devote the same time and commitment to a YouTube video as they do to TV shows.
But he observes that “Gangnam Style” illustrates the “tremendous opportunity” for advertisers — and, by extension, for content creators — on YouTube. The video’s especially popular with 12-to-17 year olds, and males generally to age 24. Those are some of “the most challenging demos for advertisers to reach.” And Greenfield notes that several have already caught on. He has seen pre-roll ads on “Gangnam Style” from Capcom, Cartoon Network, Chevy, EA, Fox’s Life Of Pi, Green Mountain, Home Depot, Intel, LG, Microsoft, Nike, Nordstrom, Samsung, and Visit Greece. What’s more, the analyst says that he noticed something that “we had never seen on YouTube before”: He saw a pre-roll ad from a local furniture store, Gramercy Vintage Furniture. “We suspect locally targeted ads have a very significant CPM,” he says.


Yes, targeted ads should charge a premium CPM, making web content more lucrative in the long run than anything on cable or broadcast (unless Neilsen gets it’s act together… but it won’t).
Notably it’s not 430 million individual viewers, it’s views. Reruns on YouTube for music videos are extremely popular – why buy a song on iTunes when you can just play the video? Plus given the dance’s popularity, a number will be rewatching to get all the moves.
Gangam should be more of a crossover for indicating how the global audience is now shifting tastes and an Asian artist can be at the top of the US charts. What will be more interesting is what other crossover will happen in other media beyond music.
It’s usually a one off thing when it comes to Asian media in the US. For instance, PSY made it big by having a funny, goofy song/video. A decade ago, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon managed to pull $128m stateside, Hero found similar success and pulled $53m stateside. It was all downhill from there.
So it isn’t so much media is trending or taste is shifting, it is, for the most part, an anomaly.
The YouTube numbers are bought and are rigged. If this song is doing so well, its sales should be at least 4.3 to 8.3 million worldwide, or 1 to 2 percent of the viewership numbers that it has received on YouTube–the latter being the average consumer buyer interest and purchase rate for a product in response to an ad and promotional campaign for said product. If those numbers have not been met, or exceeded, it proves this is a scam. So far, I have heard no one mention actual unit purchase numbers for this song–not even a mention made by this so-called analyst, which should have been the first thing out of his mouth in order to cross-check the legitimacy of the YouTube views. The whole thing is a complete fraud!!! Don’t believe the hype!!!!
PS: Also, at 10 million views per day, the song should be selling 100,000 to 200,000 units per day. It is not, or we would have heard that everywhere by now. This has scam written all over it.
JUST SHOWS HOW STUPID TODAY’S TEENAGERS ARE THAT ALL THEY DO IS WATCH YOUTUBE 27/7 AND CAN’T READ A BOOK. A SAD COMMENTARY ON SOCIETY
I’m pretty sure there’s 24 hours in a day and I’m positive that I’m younger than you, so who’s the idiot here?
How much of this money wil Psy see?!?!?
About a hundred dollars.
How about a publishing deal in the US which would not have been possible without his newfound Youtube popularity?
Really, old people commenting on this article or what? Youtube views alone with the adds would generate Psy a lot of money. Did you guys know that most of the top Youtube partners make six figures? Also, He is rockin the itunes chart. So yes, this is absolutely something you need to pay attention to.
Wake up and smell the technology people. It is here and you can’t pretend it’s not changing the way things work in good ol’ Hollywood.