by Table of Contents
Who is Tzuyang?
For those of you who don’t know, Tzuyang, whose real name is Park Jeong Hyeon, is one of the most famous and influential korean youtubers. She’s only 24 years old, but she has already amassed 2.54 million subscribers as of this writing.
Thanks to the ever peculiar growing popularity of “mukbang” videos (from the portmanteau of two korean words Muk = eat and Bang = room), she was able to capitalise on this food streaming trend and was able to easily gain fans from all over the world despite the language barrier.
Having only started youtube channel in November 2018, her track record of attracting audiences is quite impressive, with each of her videos gaining more than 3+ millions of views.
In stark contrast with the unattainable and rigid image that most television personalities represent, Tzuyang differentiated herself by portraying a friendly and charming girl with a bright and relatable personality that most of her subscribers can resonate with. Most importantly, she doesn’t shy away from her love for food, which is obviously what she is known for, by consuming unbelievably large quantities of food that even sumo wrestlers would be shocked to see.
She faces food challenges head on, and she takes her audiences to different exciting gastronomical adventures through her occasional travel v-logs around Korea and abroad.
The advent of mukbangers on youtube
While Tzuyang wasn’t the first influencer who started the trend, the mukbang popularity can be traced back to 2010 from a South Korean streaming platform called Afreeca. Some influencers then migrated to other streaming platforms like Twitch and later on, it exploded in popularity on Youtube.
Some people might think that watching other people eat would be weird, but hey, who doesn’t love food right?
But perhaps one of the reasons why it became popular is that it also rides on another trend called the ASMR.
ASMR or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response videos conjure up sensory feelings as a way to soothe and relax their audiences. Much more than that, ASMR and in combination with mukbang videos are vicarious forms of entertainment, sort of like a para-social or unrequited interaction in which the viewer feels a strong sense of connection to the youtuber.
See: 17 Youtube Video Ideas: Without Talking and Showing Your Face
Connection to your audiences is everything in brand-building. And this is probably the primary reason other famous South Korean youtube mukbangers like Boki, Heungsam (흥삼), and Dorothy to name a few became global influencers despite Korean as the main language in their channels.
Why did Tzuyang, Boki, and other Korean mukbangers quit youtube?
Much to the shock of her subscribers, Tzuyang took down all her videos from youtube after being involved in a controversy last August 2020. Tzuyang’s case wasn’t isolated. In fact, all korean mukbangers and influencers like Boki, Dorothy, Nareum, Sio ASMR and etc. were put to the hot seat because of a scandal that is deemed illegal in Korean laws.
The controversy is called the “내돈내산” or Naedon NaeSan wherein the said youtubers were falsely claiming that the food that were buying were from their own pockets while in reality, they were being paid to advertise those products.
There were basically hiding the fact that their videos were sponsored. This might seem like a trivial thing because we all know that youtubers have to recuperate those expenses from their videos, but this violates Youtube guidelines, and not disclosing ad revenues and sponsorships are considered as illegal in Korea.
This backdoor advertisement controversy caused a great stir in Korea, which resulted in a lot of netizens boycotting those channels. Almost all of the South Korean mukbangers came clean and posted apology videos to admit their mistakes, and some even went as far as retiring from youtube and taking down all their videos- one of which was Tzuyang.
Perhaps it was the pressure and negativity that caused her to retire but if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that netizens can be vicious if they smell a hint of inauthenticity.
Another famous mukbanger that was put to the spotlight was Boki.
Aside from the backdoor advertisement controversy that she was involved in, some of her most avid fans pointed out that she wasn’t really eating all that food in her videos. Her fans were claiming that she was spitting out food and that all her videos were heavily edited. Much to their dismay, Boki did not release an official statement to clear out these issues.
The nail in the coffin was that she deletes comments about the controversies to keep the word from spreading to her international fans.
What is the biggest lesson in youtube advertisement?
One might scoff at the triviality of this controversy and laugh at people who take mukbang videos seriously.
But if there’s one huge takeaway from this case, especially if you’re a content-creator, it’s that… for the love of god….
PLEASE DISCLOSE YOUR PARTNERSHIPS AND SPONSORSHIPS.
If you’re serious about building your brand and growing your channel, disclose your sponsorships or partnerships. Even if other youtubers are doing it, don’t just assume that your viewers automatically know that your videos are sponsored.
Mention the brands or companies that you’re working with. It’s not that hard. If you’ve received a free product or a gift, it won’t hurt to put it in the description of your video or make a shoutout.
Not only will you avoid potential legal issues depending in your country, but your audiences will TRUST your brand for being honest.
Be authentic as much as a possible. Your viewers aren’t just numbers. They’re actual people who can smell bullshit from miles away. They know if you’re promoting products just for the sake of earning money for yourself, or if you’re actually being authentic in reviewing those products that you are showing them.
Authenticity and honesty goes a long way in brand building.
UPDATE: Tzuyang is back!
Last August 2020, Tzuyang announced her retirement from youtube. While she deleted most of her videos, she continuously posted 10 videos of her Yeokji island adventures as it was produced by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of Korea. Those videos gave her fans a glimmer of hope that she will come back.
A lot of fans also speculated that there’s a huge possibility that she might come back.
And they were indeed right. Last November 25, 2020. Tzuyang posted this video:
In true mukbanger fashion, it was a video of her enjoying 20 packs of ramen noodles, while explaining the reason of her return. It’s pretty much a confirmation that Tzuyang is not going anywhere.
In her video, Tzuyang stated that the positive comments from her most avid fans moved her and changed her mind. She was incredibly sincere as well when she said that she wanted to come back for financial reasons, and she vowed to donate much more than her haters ever will.
She then reposted her old videos which then received hundreds of thousands of views in just a matter of days.
Talk about a comeback!
