YouTube's Top Videos For 2013

YouTube yesterday issued the lists of their most-watched viral and music videos for 2013. The Washington Post reports:

It turns out we’re all really interested in knowing what the fox says. According to YouTube’s annual list of top-trending videos, Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis had the hottest video of the year with “What Does the Fox Say?” The posting drew 276 million views since it was posted in September. Actually, it was a good year for Norwegians: The Norwegian Army version of the Harlem Shake dance craze came in right behind Ylvis’s video as the most popular of the 1.7 million versions of the dance that got uploaded to the site, YouTube said Wednesday in announcing the statistics. It was also a good year for brands on the site, with three brand videos making the top 10 trending list: “Evian Babies,” “Volvo Trucks” and “Telekinetic Coffee Surprise,” which promoted the new “Carrie “movie.

Ad Age breaks down the dough:

Earlier this year YouTube crossed the billion-user mark, and now it's poised to surpass the five-billion-dollar mark. The Google-owned video service is expected to record $5.6 billion in gross revenue this year, according to estimates from eMarketer. That's up 51% from last year and would equate to 11% of Google's total ad revenues. That figure does not include money YouTube passes on to advertising partners and content creators. This year Google will keep 35% of that total or $1.96 billion, according to eMarketer's estimate. Google generally takes a 45% cut of advertising sold into its content partners, and Google's take is exected to rise in the coming years as it phases out less-favorable revenue-sharing deals with TV networks. After revenue sharing, YouTube will take $850 million this year from video ads served in the U.S., which is up 50% from last year. Including display ads, YouTube will will net $1.08 billion this year in U.S. ad revenues.