@djsumdog @kabo @MaleGoddess @sun It actually started in early 2007, but most users were still doing it for fun. It wasn't until the recession really kicked in that people started searching for monetization as an income source, especially seeing how randos like Pewdiepie, JonTron and AngryJoe were getting popular and absolutely destroying professional journalism websites in views.

Maybe without the recession things would have gone much slower? I dunno, but doubt it, there were million of early zoomed kids looking for idols already