USA 7s D2: Cup Quarters- Fiji 12-5 Wales (FT), Kenya 14-19 Samoa (FT), South Africa 24-5 Argentina (FT), NZ 12-7 England (FT), Bowl Quarters- Canada 29-0 Uruguay (FT), Scotland 14-15 Japan (FT),  France 5-21 USA (FT), Australia 31-0 Brazil (FT). Pool play- Argentina 14-12 USA (FT), NZ 12-5 Samoa (FT), France 5-33 South Africa (FT), Kenya 7-7 England (H2), Fiji 19-10 Canada (FT), Australia 10-7 Japan (FT), Wales 28-7 Uruguay (FT), Scotland  33-5 Brazil (FT).
Suva, Fiji
Temp: 77 °F / 25.0 °C
Wind: 0.0 KMH
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
March 21, 2010 05:01:05 PM

Natalie Tran is a typical university student with one big difference - she's one of the most viewed people in the world on YouTube.

The 23-year-old Sydneysider, according to news.com, has made it to the list of the 20 most-watched videos of all time on YouTube, and her site has attracted 224 million hits globally.

Her most popular video is "How to fake a six-pack", a parody of an ad which demonstrated how women could achieve the look of a six-pack by using make-up products.

That video has so far racked up 20 million views and counting.

Her site, Community Channel, online since September 2006, is the most-subscribed YouTube site in Australia and has more than 600,000 viewers. She earns thousands of dollars a month from the ads that run beside her videos.

"Most of them are observational videos. I try to make light of some of the funny situations people face every day," Ms Tran says of her clips, which she uploads two or three times a week.

YouTube celebrates its fifth anniversary next month. Its first video - an 18-second clip shot by Yakov Lapitsky at California's San Diego Zoo - was uploaded on Saturday, April 23, 2005 at 8.27pm.

Today, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, making it the world's largest online video-sharing website.

Five years down the track, it's time to reminisce about the YouTube videos that have captured Australia's attention.

"Free Hugs campaign" is the most-watched clip of all time on YouTube (Australia) with 57 million hits since it was launched on the site on September 22, 2006. Filmed in Pitt St Mall, the three-minute video shows everyday Australians holding a "free hugs" sign encouraging strangers to share a brief embrace.

But the number of hits this feel-good clip has generated can't compare with the most-watched video of all time. "Charlie bit my finger", a 56-second video of a baby biting his older brother's finger and giggling, has generated 170 million hits - and counting.

Associate Professor Matthew Allen, of Curtin University's department of internet studies, says the fact "Free Hugs campaign" was produced in Australia has much to do with its ongoing popularity.

He says that once something reeks of popularity, the snowball effect takes over.

"The more people who view it, the more people are likely to view it in the future. People are drawn to what's popular.

"What you get is a very small number of very, very watched videos and an enormous number of videos with very few people watching them."

Next on the list was Aerosmith's clip for I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, followed closely by AC/DC's Thunderstruck clip and Weird Al Yankovic's eBay - a spoof of the Backstreet Boys song I Want It That Way about strange items that can be purchased from the online marketplace.

Professor Allen says the music-video genre made popular by MTV has educated people to "consume a complete video entertainment in three or four minutes".

"The kind of person who's going to sit and entertain themselves with YouTube is really looking for something that's probably no more than five minutes long, and the dominant media form that fits that time frame - and is a complete story - is a music video."

Professor Allen predicts that over the next five years, YouTube may become a live stream of more commercial-style videos and may even split into two sites: one for professional streaming and one for amateur, user-generated content.

"It may have started life as in the name YouTube - that's you on television - but it can be repurposed in all sorts of ways primarily driven by how Google, which owns YouTube, can make a profit from it.

"And what you are seeing more and more on YouTube videos is clickable links that will take you to a site that will then allow you to buy something.

"I think it's fair to say that, unlike many things on the internet, YouTube is now established and won't disappear."

YouTube spokeswoman Annie Baxter said YouTube was working towards the title of the most comprehensive destination for online video on the planet.

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