Earlier this week, Miley Cyrus rode a wrecking ball into the record books. Her new Terry Richardson-directed music video—in which she swings around naked on a wrecking 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.
And while Cyrus was gleefully singing and 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.