The (26-year-old) Father of Viral Video

Viral video online is huge — marketers salivate over how to recreate it, but very few succeed. I think it's because it's so organic — you never know where it will come from or what will touch on the pop culture zeitgeist in way that inspires people to keep sending it to friends. The latest video getting buzz is a fan video imitating the Backstreet Boys.

There are a handful of sites where most of the viral video seems to come from: Milk and Cookies, iFilm (recently bought by MTV), and College Humor to name a few. One of the biggest players in this space is eBaumsworld.com, which was founded by former class clown Eric Bauman (now 26) while he was still in high school. The site still has an amateurish feel about it (as do most truly viral videos) but manages to get over 1 million hits a day. I did a short email interview with Eric about eBaumsworld.com in the extended entry. Newsletter readers, come to the site for more.

Ypulse: What makes a video viral? Marketers are dying to know….

Eric Bauman: Viral videos are short, memorable clips that have a tendency to become the topic of emails and water cooler chatter. These types of clips have been described by the media as "viral" because of the addictive, fast spreading nature of the content. So, in essence it is the viewers and fans that decide if a video will become viral. The video should also have a sense of originality and creativity.

YP: How does eBaum's deal with copyright issues, i.e. users submitting content w/music they don't have the rights to?

EB: When a visitor to the site wishes to submit content they must agree to an electronic consent and release agreement form. The form says that the submitter has all ownership rights to the content and is therefore transferring those rights to eBaum's World. Of course we have a filter system in which many people are viewing the material to ensure it is original and not from another source, i.e. a video from America's Funniest Videos.

YP: Now that Viacom has bought iFilm, and Current TV (where I work) is looking for user generated short form Web video,– how is eBaum's positioning itself to compete in the space?

EB: While the team at eBaum's World is always creatively thinking and developing new ideas and projects to help us stay at the top of our genre as the number 1 recreation/humor site on the net, we believe in the old adage "if it's not broke, don't fix it." Of course we are always adding the site, like our newest section featuring standup comedians, or the sections called enews and elinks, which can be seen on the main page.

YP: How is eBaum's different from its competitors?

EB: Probably the biggest difference between eBaum's World and any other site trying to compete is nudity. While these other sites have no problem showing topless women and sometimes more, eBaum's World keeps it as clean as possible at all time. We believe eBaum's World is a unique place that serves as your one stop shop for all your hilarious and extreme media making it the most convenient for our viewers.

YP: Are there lots of teens that stream video on Ebaum's? If so, what do you do to make sure they are not streaming adult content or posting in adult forums? What is your target demographic?

EB: All content on eBaum's World is sent in via the upload screen, shown above. After the content is uploaded it is viewed by multiple people, then the content is deemed site approved or not approved. If the content is approved it may be used either for the main update, weekly newsletter or in any other form needed as material for eBaum's World. Our top demographic for the website is 18 - 34 year old males. We are always trying to expand that with new projects and ideas.

YP: Does Ebaum's World plan to get into the mobile content space?

EB: Currently there has been limited talk on the mobile content front. The idea has been brought up, but for the present time mobile content does not seem to be in eBaum's World's near future.

YP: What are your top 5 viral videos or submissions that have been submitted to Ebaum's World?

EB: It is very difficult to answer this question, to try and attempt to pick 5 submissions that top the list, out of all the hilarious submissions is a hard task. Here are the links of what we consider (after much debate) our 5 most popular (in no specific order):

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/bunny_tapdancer.html
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/gijoe.html
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/chat.html
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/games.shtml
http://funbar.ebaumsworld.com/horoscopes/

YP: Anything else you think Ypulse readers should know?

EB: Most other information can be viewed in our Media Kit here. eBaum's World has been at the top of the recreation/humor part of the Internet for around 5 years now. Currently the site receives over 1 million hits a day and ranks in the top 400 for all websites (source: alexa.com). The site receives more traffic than mtv.com and comedycentral.com combined!

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