Miley Cyrus and Vevo Take a Wrecking Ball to MTV

On Sept. 9, Miley Cyrus rode a wrecking ball into the record books. The new Terry Richardson-directed music video for her hit song Wrecking Ball—in which she swings around naked on said ball while crooning about the vicissitudes of love and occasionally licking a sledgehammer—quickly became the most popular music video ever on Vevo. Attracting 19.3 million views in the first 24 hours, it’s since gone on to pile up more than 118 million views. And while Cyrus was gleefully swinging into the hearts of fans, Vevo, a private company based in New York, was reveling in something else: the continued demolition of its competitors.

Vevo dominates the world of online music videos to a degree that’s surprising considering the pedigrees and head starts of its rivals. In August the company racked up 49.4 million unique visitors and 609 million video views, according to researcher ComScore, crushing its nearest challengers, MTV Music Group (35.3 million unique visitors; 261 million video views), Yahoo! Music (3.8 million unique visitors; 7.5 million video views), and AOL (3.1 million unique visitors; 8.1 million video views).