How an AT&T iPhone bill turns viral.

Categories: Blog
Written By: Koka Sexton

iphone bill

Justine Ezarik a 23 year old video editor from Pennsylvania wasn’t one of the first people to get the coveted iPhone even though she had been following every piece of news since the announcement was made. She also wasn’t alone when it came to showing off the new gadget to all of her friends and posts in her website and video blog. But Justine or iJustine as her fans know her was the first to go public with the bill that came in the mail.

“I was like, ‘Oh, cool, I got a package,’” she explained to ABC News when she saw the small box on her doorstep. Justine also well known for her reality lifecasting show on Justin.tv loves to open her ‘treats’ online so the thousand or so fans that watch her regularly can be as much a part of her daily life as possible. When she realized what was in the box though, the mood changed from excitement to a level of confusion and humor none of the viewers had seen before.

In the 5lb box wasn’t a book or gift, it was a 300 page cellphone bill from AT&T for her new iPhone. Justine makes no attempt to hide her almost addictive internet use and she has so many friends and fans around the world that sending SMS or text messages at a blinding rate through the day is no surprise. The 300 page bill was an itemized list of every incoming and outgoing message to her phone. When you’re sending about 30,000 of these messages a month the list grows quick even with a size 7 font.

Justine took the bill and made an entry on Revver one of her many video blogs. She showed the box the bill came in and the stack of papers that were inside, methodically flipping through the pages for the camera. Within minutes of the entry to the site, the video was getting views from all around. Then the media wave started and the internet shook.

Before 12 hours had passed the video on Revver had over 14,000 viewers and copies of the video were being rebroadcast on other well known technology sites such as www.gizmodo.com and CultOfMac.com. Justine was contacted by her local news agencies and then started getting emails from national news sources. Justine who has been living online for the past 74 days and has an internet portfolio that goes back almost 6 years has never had this type of attention.

Her lifecasting site www.justin.tv/ijustine was flooded with new visitors that wanted to know more about her and almost all fell over each other in the chat room vying for even a moment of attention from her. The moderators in the chat room were trying to be as patient as possible with all of the comments from the newbies, but they also couldn’t keep up with the amount of traffic coming in.Justine also couldn’t keep up and had to call it a night around 2am just to get up a couple hours later to start responding to more emails.

It’s only been 3 days since the bill was published and CNN has already run the story multiple times. Justine is getting more requests for interviews as I type this. The video on Revver has 165,000 views since it was uploaded on 8/12/07.

With the mass of fans and supporters in the industry around the globe, Justine has made a name for herself. The viral video hit of the 300 page iPhone bill has brought her name into a larger spotlight than I think she even expected.

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One Response to “How an AT&T iPhone bill turns viral.”

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