@基礎佑利 becomes popular, foreigners "staying abroad" dig gold in China's Internet

What kind of impact will there be when foreign "Chinese students" share related content on the Chinese Internet? Foreign girl @基本佑利 has become a dark horse creator with 4 million followers in two months just by sharing her daily life. How did she do it?

"Basic (original) camera" "Mantou (pointing at the steamed buns) is delicious!" "Bloating (menstruation) is not good!"

All these slips of the tongue point to a Korean blogger, @基本佑利. 佑利, a Korean blogger studying in Nanjing, has become a dark horse creator with 4 million followers in two months just by sharing his daily life.

In February, @基本佑利's TikTok account had less than 200,000 followers. As of now, @基本佑利's TikTok account has 5.176 million followers.

Because @基本佑利's image is too likable, netizens sighed: The last foreign girl who was loved by the whole nation was the Sassy Princess.

Why can @基本佑利 attract millions of fans and make netizens call her "cute"? What other bloggers have become popular in this field?

1. "What are the basic benefits?"

It is not an exaggeration to describe Yuri as a master of empty ear.

@基本佑利's self-introduction says that she is Korean and currently studying in Nanjing. During her school years, 佑利 began to film her daily life in China, including going to see a Chinese doctor, eating out, and participating in a school singing competition.

By observing @基本佑利's content, it is not difficult to find that her main theme when traveling around the world is "randomly replying to posts that have been read".

For example, when @基本佑利 went to see a Chinese doctor, he heard "Do you like to sleep on your side?" as "Sleep on the toilet."

"Menstruation!" "Bloating?" "Your menstruation is not good!" "Your eyes are not good?"

"So where is my normal place?" "...not normal!"

Image source: TikTok

A netizen commented below: "Now I know what my English level is, it's about the same as your Chinese."

There are many jokes caused by language communication. In a video titled "First time eating duck blood vermicelli" released on March 31, Yuri met an uncle from Nanjing on the road and invited him to eat steamed buns instead of steamed buns. The video has been played more than 3 million times.

“You speak too fast”

"I can't speak slowly. If I speak slowly, it will be bad if you hear it."

Image source: TikTok

Even her account name is full of the atmosphere of "read and reply". Netizens asked: Why is it called Basic Yuri?

@基本佑利 answered: When she didn’t know the original camera, she called it “基本摄像”. On that day, her friend said a lot of basic words, such as basic eyes, basic nose, and basic mirror, so she changed her name to “基本佑利”…

From experiencing Chinese massage to taking a bath to making tea for the first time and wearing Hanfu, @基基佑利 quickly differentiated himself among foreign bloggers with his cute and adorable personality and random responses. You may feel that the video is irrelevant when you first click on it, but as you continue to watch, you will laugh at the dislocation.

@基礎佑利's "Read Randomly" and "佑利基本第一時" series

According to @基本佑利's existing videos, its early content was mainly about sharing daily life. Although it received a certain amount of attention, it did not become popular. It was not until the "已读乱回" series that it attracted a large number of viewers.

Specifically, due to the polyphones and homophones in Chinese, Basic Yuri's understanding is "clear but not completely clear", which makes the techniques of expectation violation and homophonic puns inadvertently mixed into @基本佑利's video content. When the audience takes it for granted and thinks in a fixed scene, @基本佑利 inadvertently reveals his own "burden" and makes the audience laugh by "playing dumb".

The jokes of "Ma Shimei" never get old, and the column "Reading Randomly" has been a hit. The chaotic dialogues and vivid language make this column video attract a large number of viewers.

Since then, @基本佑利 has stuck to the identity of "a Korean studying in China" and produced many "佑利's first time" experience videos. "Read random replies + first experience" pushed the account into a stage of fan growth.

Currently, @基本佑利's video content is mainly divided into three parts: "Random Replies I've Read", "佑利's Basic First Time", and "Comment Area Q&A", among which "Random Replies I've Read" has the largest number of hits.

From the content style, @基本佑利's videos are very daily, and the video effect is mainly focused on 佑利's train of thought. You ask one thing and she answers another. If you don't have a foreign identity, you really can't give such a confusing answer.

Netizens also like to interact with Yuri like this: "Yuri, let me ask you, can I eat luncheon meat at night?" "No."

Image source: TikTok

Many Korean students also commented under her video: "You have good food in China! What about me!!!"

Image source: TikTok

In general, @基本佑利 can attract so many fans, on the one hand because of the blogger's personal charm. On the other hand, it is because people see 佑利's life experience in China and feel the collision of different cultural differences. People see 佑利 as a "good mental state" and a cute foreigner who is brave enough to try Chinese culture.

2. “Liuzi” make Chinese social platforms popular

"Liuzi" is the abbreviation for international students. On social media, the daily lives of "liuzi" can be seen everywhere.

On Xiaohongshu, there are endless stories about the daily lives of "international students" in countries such as the UK, South Korea, and Tokyo. Cooking battles with pigs, "crazy" mental states when rushing to meet deadlines, and inhaling a storm of delicious food after returning home... International students constantly complain about their bizarre experiences on Xiaohongshu and provide experience summaries for "future generations".

Image source: Xiaohongshu

On Bilibili, @超级天下无敌炒蛋, who studied abroad in Iceland, became popular by sharing his outrageous study abroad life. After arriving in Iceland under the guidance of fate, the UP host had the chance to experience outrageous and abstract life such as 97 yuan per pound of chicken, house fire, and smelly hot spring water. In the latest video, the UP host started the "copy" tasks of delivering takeout and working as an iron miner.

Image source: Station B

Netizens commented: "This UP host seems to be mentally unstable. But because he is so unstable, he feels like a close and down-to-earth friend who has known each other for a lifetime."

Coincidentally, UP host @小叶在纽约- took a different approach. With his excellent cooking skills, his multiple videos have been viewed over 500,000 times and he was rated by netizens as "the ceiling of Liuzi's cooking skills."

Image source: Station B

The popularity of overseas students in China, such as @基本佑利, is inseparable from the promotion of overseas students. With the promotion of platforms and overseas students, more and more overseas users are beginning to flock to Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, and Douyin.

Since last year, more and more "cute foreigner" bloggers have appeared on social media platforms such as Tik Tok and Xiaohongshu.

@傻小刘 started posting videos on TikTok in 2020. Currently, @傻小刘 has 5.215 million followers, and his content is similar to that of @基本佑利, mainly focusing on the differences between Chinese and Korean cultures, life experiences, and cross-dressing videos.

Image source: TikTok

@titi’s China journey on Xiaohongshu mainly shows her process of learning Chinese, and also outputs text such as: "I am going to donate blood today."

In fact, it is not difficult to understand why overseas bloggers and study abroad bloggers such as @基本佑利 can attract the interest of the audience. Whether it is @基本佑利's conversations with passers-by and Chinese medicine practitioners, or @超级天下无敌炒蛋's abstract experiences in Iceland and Australia, they all see people's daily lives from an outside perspective, which to some extent breaks people's cognitive barriers.

3. The 2.0 Era of Overseas Content Creators

Overseas content creators have gone through several stages on the Chinese Internet.

In the early days, the Chinese Internet was very tolerant of overseas bloggers, and a number of formulaic and crude "praising China" contents also appeared at this time.

Later, as a large number of foreign faces appeared on the Chinese Internet and the audience's aesthetic taste for content improved, Chinese netizens' requirements for foreign bloggers also rose.

The Korean blogger @韩国东东, who became popular in the early days, was boycotted by netizens because he intentionally blurred the Chinese style and the Oriental style in his videos, and his number of fans dropped significantly. After resuming, the main content of his videos was changed to introduce Korean social customs, but the number of video views was no longer as high as before, and it dropped precipitously.

At the same time, a group of foreign creators with professional skills have entered the Chinese Internet. Take Bilibili as an example, there are many UP hosts such as professional producer @JoeCreator, singer & musician @拉美小姐Waleska, vocal teacher @JKAI杰凯, etc. They not only have high professional standards, but also excellent video production.

However, jokes caused by cultural differences are still the biggest topic among international students and foreign bloggers, and most overseas bloggers still cannot avoid this issue.

The camera turns to @基本佑利. At present, @基本佑利's latest video style is mainly the "first experience" series. In the future, perhaps @基本佑利 can further build its own IP, starting from conveying the culture of China and South Korea, and further enriching the video content.

In terms of commercial realization, according to the data from Relang, @基基佑利 has not started live broadcasting or selling goods. However, Basic 佑利 will share some of his own outfit videos in the video, which can be realized in a considerable space, and the commercial potential needs to be further explored.

As more and more overseas bloggers enter the Chinese Internet, there is no doubt that higher requirements are placed on the content quality and creativity of creators. We also expect overseas bloggers to produce more innovative content based on their own positioning.

References:

1. "Listen to the advice" of foreigners and make money from Xiaohongshu｜Kas Data