The first YouTube video went live in 2005. The following year, the site began seeing its first viral hits.

Judson Laipply’s “Evolution of Dance,” posted in 2006, reached seventy million views in about eight months. Justin Bieber started uploading videos of his performances in 2007, and within a year he was an Internet star.

Laipply’s and Bieber’s successes seemed extraordinary and astonishingly fast at the time. But the pace and frequency of such viral rises only continued to increase. In April 2010, Greyson Chance became YouTube famous less than a week after posting a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi.” Three months later, Yosemitebear’s “Yosemite Mountain Double Rainbow 1-8-10” video blog entry skyrocketed to prominence just as rapidly as the Gregory Brothers’ auto-tuned “Double Rainbow” song.