‘Charlie bit my finger – again!’ has been named as the most successful viral video of all time, exceeding half a billion views on YouTube.
Since the boy's father uploaded the video in May 2007 the video, featuring young Charlie biting the finger of older brother Harry, it has been viewed some 500,022,774 times.
Howard Davies-Carr, the boy's father Jasper commented: “We love that such a simple video has touched so many souls. We hope the boys can continue to lighten up peoples’ lives in the years to come.”
The YouTube viewing statistics for the original ‘Charlie Bit My Finder’ video provides a snapshot into how the user generated video went viral and also illustrates significant changes in our viewing habits over the last five years.
High speed mobile broadband coupled with the widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets has caused a dramatic shift to video consumption on the go with nearly three-quarters (75.3 per cent) of all views in 2012 coming from these kind of devices, compared with 45.2 per cent in 2011 and 22.4 per cent in 2010.
The video has garnered audience attention worldwide with the US, Mexico, UK, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Australia and most recently, Saudi Arabia all having featured in the top five list of countries generating the most views each year. There have also been 103 views from the Vatican City, and in last place three views from Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand.
In 2007, when the video first went live, 60 per cent of the audience were female but over the last five years the audience has become more evenly split.
The half-billion milestone coincides with the introduction of a new YouTube series featuring the –much-older – stars of the original video Harry and Charlie alongside their younger brother Jasper.
The first three pilot videos titled “Biting News”, “King of the Week” and “Charlie Bites…Toys” were produced by Viral Studios, a division of management and marketing company Viral Spiral, in conjunction with online video distribution, marketing and monetisation specialist Rightster. The series showcases a selection of lighthearted viral videos from around the web, together with a review of a remote controlled Lamborghini toy car.
Of the new project Damian Collier, founder and CEO of Viral Spiral, said: “We’re delighted that the ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ clip has now reached the half a billion views milestone – it’s amazing to see how popular this video has become in every corner of the globe. It's a household name, and turning into a true 'brand'. We look forward to working with the boys and their family as well as Rightster, on this exciting new venture.”
Rightster founder and CEO Charlie Muirhead, added: ““This is a hugely exciting time for the online video industry and we are delighted to be collaborating with Viral Spiral to bring original content programming ideas to life.”