"Gangnam Style" generates $8m on YouTube

STREAM BECOMES TIDAL WAVE: “Gangnam Style,” which recently became the most-watched YouTube video ever, with 1.23 billion views, has generated $8 million in revenue on YouTube alone, Google chief business officer Nikesh Arora said in a rare disclosure on the company’s Q4 earnings call, Quartz reports. A previous analysis by the AP stated that PSY had earned $7.9 million in overall worldwide revenue from the track, including downloads, streams and sales on services available only in Korea. Doing the math, Quartz calculates that the “Gangnam style” clip is generating on average 0.65 cents every time someone clicks on it. The creator of a YouTube video keeps about half of that money, which suggests PSY and Schoolboy/Republic have earned about $4 million from YouTube. One of our colleagues was dubious about this estimate, guessing PSY’s take is more like $49 and a YouTube-branded fanny pack. (1/23a)