I think Gangnam Style's views are mostly legit.
I think people viewed the video, but how many liked what they saw, posted links because they wanted others to laugh at some fool on YT, or simply watched part of the video and gave up?
I watched part of the video and gave up. So I was one of those millions of viewers. If asked if the vid should be deleted, I would have voted YES! I am not a viewer the producers would like, but I did view part of it.
Remember, you can go to "
fiverr dot com" or many other such sites and pay for hits, Facebook likes and Tweets. No problem generating millions of hits for almost no green.
How views are converted to cold, hard cash is the bottom line question. So many people are involved in deal it is hard to say who made what or how much.
Videos with hugh hits means something most people do not immediately understand. The channel owner likely makes money with a channel that gets a billion million gazillion hits. So (I am guessing) Gangnam Style made money without "selling" something.
Perhaps a deal with Pampers because he looks like his pants are full of something.
YT likely made money as well. Hts, views, tweets, likes and such represent money these days. If I posted a truly crappy video and it was viewed by millions upon millions of peoople, long green is comming my way, most likely.
No thank you, Mr. Gangnam Style. I'll stick with advanced frailing lessons, vintage commercials, illegally uploaded music I forgot about, TV theme songs and episodes; videos about ripping and thrashing on the Les Paul, cute kittens and cooking lessons, thank you very much.