A cat is more likely to be more famous than you on the Internet. — This visual is human-created, AI-aided. Source: Freepik
You can’t avoid images or videos of cats on the Internet as netizens often share various cat-related content to express themselves.
For International Cat Day on Aug 8, find out how cats become such an integral part of Internet culture.
Meow! It started with a meme
Back in 2007, the website ‘I Can Has Cheezburger? (ICHB)’ was launched and became a go-to site for users to search or submit a type of meme called lolcat.
Typically, they would take a photo of a cat and add a grammatically-incorrect caption that somehow relates to the cat’s expression.
One of the most defining lolcat memes of that time was a fluffy gray cat with the caption ‘I Can Has Cheezburger’ which has been described by users on the site as the meme that started it all. Eventually, lolcat became the go-to expression for various emotions or situations for millions of users on the Internet.
Lolcat became the go-to expression for various emotions or situations for millions of users on the Internet. — Freepik
In 2015, The New York Times reported that the popularity of cats on the Internet became the subject of a museum exhibition called How Cats Took Over The Internet. At the time, the exhibition was made up of popular images, videos and GIFs (graphic interchange format) of cats.
Apart from lolcats, the report said the exhibition also highlighted other forms of popular cat expressions on the Internet, including ‘caturday’, where people post pictures of cats on Saturdays.
It was also widely believed at the time that cats made up 15% of all Internet traffic, a myth perpetuated by a popular US cat food company, which originated in 2013. While the article stated that it’s not true, museum curator Jason Eppink said that there is no denying that there was an avalanche of cat content on the Internet.
“People on the web are more likely to post a cat than another animal, because it sort of perpetuates itself. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he said to The New York Times.
The former CEO of the ICHB website, Ben Huh, told The Sydney Morning Herald in a 2017 interview that people tend to anthropomorphise cats because of their facial expressions.
“Cats are a great canvas for human emotion because they are so expressive,” Huh said.
Purr! Meet the pioneers
Essentially, anyone has the opportunity to become Internet famous as various platforms allow users to submit their own content and create a fan base among millions of users. It’s no surprise then that cat owners with interesting cats could command a huge following.
This 2014 photo to mark Tardar Sauce's appearance on American Idol was captioned: 'I was on American Idol once. It was awful...' to showcase the cat's trademark grumpy personality. — X.com/@RealGrumpyCat
One of the earliest well-known Internet cats was Tardar Sauce, who is famously known as Grumpy Cat. The female cat became a viral sensation in 2012 after a photo of her was posted on Reddit.
Users were taken by the cat’s unique permanent frown, which is the result of being born with dwarfism and an underbite. A video posted by her owners on YouTube titled ‘The Original Grumpy Cat’ has since racked up 22 million views.
According to the Times, Tardar Sauce’s life changed at that point as her Internet fame led to appearances on popular TV shows such as American Idol, as well as the TV movie Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, complete with merchandise lines including t-shirts, books and even a perfume called Kitty Fur.
Tardar Sauce died in 2019 at seven years old. To date, her Instagram account remains active with 2.6 million followers.
Lil Bub, another cat with a distinctive facial expression which is also the result of a form of feline dwarfism, became a viral sensation in 2011 when a photo of her wide eyes and protruding tongue was posted on Tumblr.
Lil Bub became a viral sensation in 2011 when a photo of her wide eyes and protruding tongue. — X.com/@IAMLILBUB
Then with over two million followers on Instagram, Lil Bub appeared on daytime talk shows in the US, became the face of an animal rights campaign for the non-profit organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) and even met Grumpy Cat at the Internet Cat Video Film Festival in 2013.
When Lil Bub died in 2019, her owner Mike Bridvasky shared in a farewell letter that the cat helped to make a “huge difference in the world” including raising over US$700,000 (RM3.21mil) for animal welfare.
Rich cats got your tongue
Ever wonder how much money famous Internet cats could earn? Most likely more than you.
Back in 2017, Guinness World Records gave the title for Most Views For An Animal On YouTube to Maru, a fluffy cat living in Japan, as it had by then amassed over 320 million views. Viewers were taken by videos of Maru playing with boxes.
Videos of Maru playing with boxes have garnered more than 500 millions views on YouTube. — Screengrab from YouTube.com/@mugumogu
It was reported by In Touch Weekly that Maru could bring in up to six figures annually through merchandising deals and commercial appearances for its owners. Now, Maru has over 890,000 followers on YouTube and more than 500 million views across some 1,900 videos.
In 2020, the Guinness World Records certified a slightly cross-eyed gray cat named Nala as the most famous cat on Instagram with 4.3 million followers.
The cat was first adopted by Varisiri Methachittiphan from a US shelter in 2012. She then created an Instagram account just to share updates about Nala with loved ones living in Thailand.
With over 4.5 million followers on Instagram, Nala has her own line of cat products such as food and toys. — Facebook.com/nalacatshow
Now with over 4.5 million followers, Nala has her own line of cat products such as food and toys. The Hollywood Reporter has described Nala as the first “million-dollar cat client” for top talent agency CAA.
It was reported by publications like UK’s The Sun that Nala could command up to five figures for a sponsored post on Instagram. During an appearance on Steve On Watch last year, a chat show hosted by Steve Harvey, Methachittiphan was coy about Nala’s net worth. She then revealed that the cat has made enough money to buy two houses for her owners.
