Psy's epic dance sensation has infiltrated every crevice of pop culture, redefined awesome, and generated tons of money along the way.
While it might be impossible to put a dollar value on awesomeness, the epic rise of the meme surrounding South Korean rapper Psy's "Gangnam Style" sensation gives us an opportunity to try.Right now, Psy's music video has more than 337 million views on YouTube, making it the ninth most watched video of all time, and one that's quickly advancing on Justin Bieber in position eight. It's also topped the U.K. charts, garnered over 2 million Facebook Likes, and inspired a Klingon version.
How much is all that viral, meme-licious goodness worth in real-world currency? Quite a bit, it turns out.
Serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis estimates that the YouTube views alone have generated at least $600,000, and perhaps more than a million bucks. Here's how he breaks it down in his e-mail newsletter:
Math is fairly simple, as partners tend to net out at $2 CPMs on YouTube. It is likely that the last 100M views were sold out at a higher CPM as the trend broke out. My guess is: $2 for the first 200k views ($400k), then $8 for the last 100M (another $800k for the last 100M views). Total? $1.2M in revenue -- or $20k a day.That doesn't include the nearly hundred million additional views of a handful of other videos of live performances and other clips that have been posted on Psy's official YouTube channel since "Gangnam Style" hit. That means it's within the realm of possibility that "Gangnam Style" has become a $1.5 million revenue stream for the South Korean pseudo-rapper over the past few months.
