And the influencer of the year 2022 is… a cat. A Ukrainian cat baptized Stepan, who has 2.4 million subscribers on social networks TikTok and Instagram. He became famous almost two years ago when his owner, Anna, posted a photo of him leaning on a glass of wine and a plate of blinis. His jaded face has gone viral: after 5 million “likes” in the first week – including one from Britney Spears – the image now has more than 33 million.
And this winter, the war in Ukraine gave the cat Stepan another form of notoriety. His escape from the city of Kharkiv – widely relayed on the networks – was thus orchestrated by the World Influencers and Bloggers Association (WIBA), which found him and his mistress a refuge in Monaco, where the association, then in Nice.
In May, Stepan was thus able to receive, in his own hands, his influencer of the year prize, awarded at the Martinez hotel in Cannes, on the sidelines of the film festival. The Ukrainian feline thus joined the dream team of what are called “pet influencer”, to designate pets who have become real Instagrammers.
If he is hot on the heels of the pioneer of the genre, the American Grumpy Cat, the grumpy cat who died in 2019 and his 2.6 million subscribers on Instagram, Stepan has not yet reached
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