I can get the appeal of See You Again, and even Gangnam Style and Friday.

But this song is...void of anything that makes it stand out. Maybe I'm getting old. Good on them for cracking 3 billion though.

I grew tired of it already, but I used to love the song.  Why I liked it? I have no idea.  I just did.

But I think the reason for the success is just the viral effect.  The shit just went viral.  Just like Gangnam Style and Watch Me from Silento (these two I hated with a passion)

Disappointingly unsurprising. Despacito is trash, but I doubt its sales come close to other songs that have less viewed videos. This is the type of generic pop garbage that gets millions of streams and video views but not the same groundbreaking sales because everyone deep down knows it's not that special.

It's just the current summer hit. The internet is getting bigger and so will the popularity of those songs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despacito#Charts

Just listening to the song now and this is the first time I've heard it and seen the video. But I have heard the better sounding, and better written Parody called "I Wear Speedos" This is one of the times where the Parody is significantly better than the official song.

How the hell did this song become the most viewed video on Youtube? It's not even that good. The video isn't funny or remarkable like "Gangnam Style". I could list hundreds of songs that are better and more relatable than this. I think the reason for this songs success is it's a huge international collaboration and getting lots of international exposer. Mexico and South America are probably responsible for a large majority of the views. This really shows the amazing growth of the internet and clashing of cultures of different nationalities. The Internet is much better than just Westerners (North America and Europe), Asian countries, and Russia. As the years go on this stuff is going to become more and more popular as Internet becomes more common in other countries and part of their everyday life as much as it is of ours.

I live in a mostly Hispanic populated city in the border with Mexico, this song has been heavily played in the radio/tv around here. I just know it, even if I don't watch TV at all and only listen to the radio when I'm in somebody else's car/they're driving.

But I also know that the sales aren't probably setting the world on fire for two reasons: 1. Its a viral song/video, not a mega hit. 2. The audience that it is aimed at (Hispanics that like Bachata/Reggaeton whatever) are NOT very big on legally purchasing music. They might stream it or illegally download it, but they rarely buy music.

With that said, I haven't listened to it on full and I thought the success was due to Justin Bieber being featured or something. I never thought it would surpass Gangnam Style though! I'm so out of touch with the Western mainstream.

Just gonna bring it up since people are talking about the wealth of artists : In general viral hits do not equate to status in the same way a hit used to in the older generations. There are of course exceptions though.

Something like Nirvana is still going to be bigger than any random hit coming nowadays.

Undeserved popularity, it's a summer hit that grew too big, little girls sing it all the time wherever I go, it's like a nightmare...

Living in a south american country I am sick of this song. The thing was waaay too popular a few months ago and then when it started fading away like most hits do, stupid Justin Beiber decided he liked it and BOOOM! Back to the top again

Seriously, I went to Italy a few weeks and I was tired of it. And it's like every freaking song in the genre

Lol, and I've never even heard this song before xD