The popularity of cat content on the web has experts of all kinds scratching their heads, from the founder of I Can Haz Cheezburger (a multi-millionaire thanks to shared cat photos), to animal experts and social scientists.
The phenomenon has even spawned a successful “Cat Internet Video Festival” produced by the respected Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis now touring the US. The web has created cats who are instantly recognizable around the world like Grumpy Cat (above), Lil BUB and Maru, known for his antics with boxes, who has more subscribers than any animal on YouTube.
If you search “cat videos” on YouTube you’ll get more than 15 million choices. According to Ad Age, the top 100 cat videos generate about a million views a day. And cats consistently beat out dogs when it comes to social media success.
So why cats and not dogs? This question brings us closer to possible answers:
