Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular

by Derek Thompson

Mistaking dark broadcasts for viral spread is common. In 2012, a thirty-minute documentary about the Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony became the “most viral video in history,” with one hundred million views on YouTube in just six days. It is unquestionably an amazing feat for a documentary to reach all-time Hollywood blockbuster distribution in less than a week. But was this really a case of pure viral spread, powered by millions of ordinary individuals sharing it with one or two people? Not really. The video was shared by pop stars like Rihanna and Taylor Swift, television stars like Oprah Winfrey and Ryan Seacrest, and some of Twitter’s largest broadcasters, including Kim Kardashian, with thirteen million followers at the time, and Justin Bieber, with eighteen million followers. These weren’t ordinary individuals passing the information to two or three other people like a virus. They were dark broadcasters sending the video to millions of people instantly within a densely connected network, even though many people who ultimately saw the video never knew that these celebrities were responsible for its distribution.