十年盘点 | 因YouTube而火的红人们

    如果你想感受一下时间的无情流逝，只需想想一个简单事实：今年是YouTube成立10周年。这家视频网站始建于2005年，次年以17亿美元的价格被谷歌收购。从此之后，它就成了观看泄漏的电影预告片、可疑的天才音乐家和小动物视频的首选之地。

    没过多久，人们就发现YouTube是一个极佳的免费宣传平台。不过，要将数百万的YouTube点击数转变为一个能够赚到真金白银的职业，则完全是另一回事。不信去问问丽贝卡•布莱克等，他们都亲身体会过其中的艰难。

    尽管现实如此残酷，仍有少数人打破宿命，把YouTube上积攒的超高人气化为实实在在的事业发展推动力，名利双收！《财富》列举了其中的一些幸运儿，他们从电脑屏幕里脱颖而出，被人们牢牢地记在了心里。

    If you want to feel the merciless ravages of time as it has its way with you, simply ponder the fact that as of this year, YouTube is 10 years old. Founded in 2005 and sold to Google the following year for $1.7 billion, it’s been the go-to source for leaked movie trailers, musicians of dubious talent and kitten videos ever since.

    It didn’t take long for people to figure out that YouTube was a great source of free publicity, but turning millions of YouTube views into actual, paying careers is another matter entirely. Just ask Rebecca Black, or Chris Crocker,or Tay Zonday, who all found this out the hard way.

    Despite this brutal reality, a few people have beaten the odds and parlayed YouTube popularity into actual careers. With paychecks and everything! Fortunepresents a list of these lucky luminaries, who jumped out of our computer screens and into our hearts.

    鸟叔

    韩国音乐人朴载相创作了风靡全球的震撼单曲《江南Style》，他的艺名“鸟叔”则更为人所知。2012年7月，鸟叔发布了自己的第六张专辑《Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1》，《江南Style》是其中的主打歌。尽管这张专辑在韩国本土销量出色，但它能够成为轰动全球的神曲，还必须感谢YouTube强大的传播力量。

    2012年11月24日，鸟叔在Twitter上宣布，《江南Style》的MV成为了YouTube历史上被观看最多的视频，不到一个月后，它成为史上第一个点击量突破10亿的视频。这首歌最终在美国Billboard歌曲榜上飙升至第二名，并成为过去几年公司圣诞晚会上每位音乐主持人的必放曲目。鸟叔的下一张专辑预计将于今年晚些时候发布。

    Psy

    The omnipresent hit single “Gangnam Style” is the brainchild of South Korean musician Park Jae-sang, better known by his stage name, Psy. It was released in July 2012 as the lead-off single from his sixth album, “Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1,” and though the album did well in his native land, it became an international sensation thanks to YouTube.

    On November 24, 2012, the artist took to Twitter to announce that the video had just become the most watched video in YouTube history, and less than a month later, it became the first in history to reach one billion views. This led to the song peaking on the USBillboard charts at number two, and its presence on every DJ playlist in corporate Christmas party history in the last couple of years. Psy’s next album is expected to be released later this year.