15 million followers in 5 days, the story of overseas bloggers "digging for gold"

Life abroad may be what many people dream of. There is also a group of overseas bloggers on the Internet who record their lives and attract many fans. What is unique about their content creation? How do they run their own content business in the fiercely competitive short video track?

As Argentina defeated France in a penalty shootout to win the championship, the football king Messi finally realized his dream, and the Qatar World Cup, which was held for the first time in the winter of the northern hemisphere, slowly came to an end.

Over the past month, content about football and the World Cup has been overwhelming on short video platforms, with many people jokingly calling themselves "real fans" of the four-year event.

With the irrigation of massive traffic, a group of expert bloggers have become popular and entered the vision of more audiences. The most successful among them is undoubtedly the Qatari "Prince" who became unexpectedly famous.

"To my Chinese fans, thank you very much for your support. This is my official TikTok account. I hope you like it. Thank you again for your love. I really appreciate it."

On November 27, Abdulrahman Fahad Al Thani, a Qatari youth who became famous for his resemblance to Qatar World Cup mascot Laeb, officially announced his entry into Douyin and changed his nickname to @LaebLittlePrince (now renamed @RoyalLittleDumpling), expressing his gratitude and recognition to Chinese netizens.

Within five days of entering the market, his Douyin account has attracted 15 million followers, and his super strong ability to attract fans has once again demonstrated his huge appeal.

Of course, in addition to bloggers like @拉伊布小王子 who became famous accidentally, there are also many bloggers living overseas who are active on the platform. Some of them are Chinese and some are locals. They become popular on domestic Internet platforms by recording their lives abroad.

1. The oil prince “comes down to earth” to become a blogger?

In the opening match of the Qatar World Cup on November 20, host Qatar lost 0:2 to Ecuador, becoming the first host team in World Cup history to lose in the opening match.

Faced with the national team's defeat, many Qatari spectators showed sad expressions. Among them, @Laib Little Prince, wearing traditional Qatari costume, had an extremely funny expression on his face in the stands. He also looked like the mascot of this World Cup. As a result, this group of photos quickly became popular on the Internet and was made into a series of emoticons that were widely circulated.

The discussion about the identity of the "little prince" instantly became the focus of the Internet. Some people said he was the younger brother of the current emir, some said he was his nephew, and some questioned his identity, saying he was not a member of the royal family, but a product carefully packaged by an Internet celebrity company. Because of this opportunity, first an Arabic blogger in my country contacted him on Instagram and conveyed to him the love of Chinese netizens, and then the official media contacted him for a more detailed interview.

As a series of events unfolded, the popularity of Qatar's "Little Prince" remained high, and netizens' attention to him also increased day by day.

Finally, faced with the enthusiasm of Chinese netizens, the "Little Prince" also chose to join Chinese social platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo, and expressed that he looked forward to more opportunities to communicate with Chinese netizens.

Image source: @Royal Dumplings Douyin screenshot

According to Kas's observation, at 15:59 on November 27, he posted the account's first greeting video on Douyin. At around 12 noon the next day, the number of followers of the account had exceeded 10 million in less than 20 hours, and the video has received 3.68W likes so far.

Analyzing the key to the "little prince" becoming a phenomenal internet celebrity in a short period of time, Kas believes that in addition to his success in catching the traffic express train of the World Cup, more importantly, he showed sincerity and gratitude to his fans. In every public video of @王室小饺子, he always spared no effort to express his gratitude and love for Chinese netizens and Chinese culture. This unpretentious and unpretentious way of dealing with things helped him win the favor of more netizens.

In addition, we can also see the "two-way running" with fans from the works he released. At present, his account has 5 works, maintaining a relatively high update frequency. A video he released on December 1 was specially made for a fan who is in the third year of high school. In the video, he not only encouraged the fans' studies and exams, but also actively met the fans' wishes and showed his autograph for the first time, which is full of pampering for fans.

2. Why are overseas bloggers always so popular?

Of course, there are not many cases like @拉伊布小王子 who can perfectly hit the traffic trend, but overseas bloggers with footprints all over the world can always work hard and find the soil suitable for the survival of their content and win the favor of domestic netizens.

Because of the different geographical environment from the audience, their content always makes domestic netizens enjoy watching it even when recording the most ordinary food, clothing, housing and transportation.

For example, @小老虎的泰国行, a food blogger who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, is dedicated to sharing his “daily foodie life” with everyone on his account.

8-pound king crabs, arm-length mantis shrimps, Thai-style raw marinated crabs with a jelly-like texture... Thai food, which is very different from Chinese eating habits, has repeatedly attracted the curiosity and thirst for knowledge of netizens. When the jumping shrimps dance in the blogger's bowl, the fireworks on the other side of the sea seem to be blown to the audience.

Image source: @小老虎的泰国行TikTok screenshot

Among these, if the bloggers have a keen eye and can find the differences between the two cultures from ordinary things, the collision between the two will make the video more interesting and topical.

Take the account @王炸夫妻在日本 as an example. This Chinese couple living in Japan cleverly turned the camera to their Japanese bestie. By sharing the different lifestyles of the two cultures, they achieved the entertainment purpose of short videos and have currently attracted 6.82W followers.

The blogger will check in Japanese food and restore the Japanese eating habits for the audience, such as natto rice, raw cabbage, egg yolk rice, etc.; he also invites Japanese friends to try Chinese food and popularize China's food culture, such as taking them to experience salted duck eggs, snail noodles and scallion rolls.

Under this comparison, on the one hand, the uncommon ingredients and cooking methods in China bring the audience a brand new visual experience; on the other hand, the things we come into contact with in our daily lives have become "rare things" in the eyes of others and appear to be more shocking.

The most interesting thing is that the blogger's "just right" complaints about her best friend when sharing her life seemed to be expressing the audience's inner "sighs", attracting fans to discuss the video later.

Image source: @王炸夫妻 screenshot of TikTok in Japan

There is another type of blogger who downplays local products and emphasizes personal style, such as the beautiful master @甜桃酱. She is very good at finding and showing the different reactions and practices of Japanese girls and Chinese girls when facing the same thing . She interprets the various interesting things in her study abroad life in a situational way, and just reveals the "little tricks" in the girl's heart.

This real and unpretentious life of studying abroad not only looks interesting and fun, but is also closer to the lives of young people, attracting more young fans.

Image source: @甜桃酱TikTok screenshot

A detailed analysis of the similarities between these bloggers shows that their creations are all focused on fixed topics such as food, family, and learning, and they try to interpret their experiences abroad with Chinese thinking. Hot topics such as cultural differences, differences in eating habits, and conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have attracted many bloggers to imitate and shoot.

Of course, if you want to continue to maintain the competitiveness of your own content, imitation alone is far from enough. Creators need to maintain their own unique vision and thinking, and make good use of their "dual identities" so that the audience can experience novel exotic customs while resonating with the blogger and forming a deeper connection.

3. Business tips from overseas experts

Of course, a track can continue to be popular not only because of traffic, but also because of profits. If overseas bloggers want to gain a foothold in the highly competitive short video market, they must find a monetization path that suits their content.

Kas observed that there are many bloggers overseas who take advantage of their geographical advantages and recommend scarce local specialties to their fans, thereby establishing their own barriers on the product side and embarking on a more unique path as live streamers.

According to data from iiMedia Research, in 2016, my country's cross-border e-commerce industry began to enter the fast lane of development. From 2016 to 2020, the number of Chinese overseas shopping users continued to increase, and by 2020, the scale of Chinese overseas shopping users had reached 158 million. Unconsciously, overseas shopping has become a regular consumption method for many consumers, especially Generation Z. And cross-border products of various categories have quietly become an indispensable part of many people's daily lives.

For example, the just-passed "Black Friday", as a traditional shopping festival in Western countries, is similar to the "Double Eleven" in China. Many brands will choose to offer the biggest discounts of the year during this event, and the huge price difference naturally brings business opportunities to some broadcasters and influencers living overseas.

"Black Friday is too crazy, look, it's all gone, sisters."

From @奈斯逛美国's video, it is not difficult to see the craziness of this overseas shopping festival. On the near side of the screen, the blogger is carrying a bag and explaining to the audience, while on the far side, the empty shelves, the unimaginable discounts, and the crowded shopping scenes in the mall all stimulate the hearts of domestic shoppers in front of the screen.

Image source: @奈斯逛美国TikTok screenshot

Third-party data shows that this overseas blogger, who has only 1.48 million followers, has conducted 28 live broadcasts in the past 30 days, with cumulative sales of 100,000-250,000 yuan and cumulative sales of 50 million-75 million yuan.

The secret to leveraging such a large number of fans to achieve impressive sales lies in the goods. Kass observed that its live broadcast room mainly sells light luxury brands such as COACH and TORY BRUCH, of which COACH accounts for more than 40%. The biggest advantage of these brands is that consumers already have a certain brand awareness, and the price difference between domestic and foreign markets is large enough.

In this way, the anchor not only saves time in establishing consumer minds, but also because of the identity of "overseas blogger", the live broadcast room becomes more authentic and affordable, making it easier to convince viewers to place orders to shop, making this "purchasing on behalf of others" business more efficient.

In addition, Kas also observed that many bloggers choose to start their own original brands after gaining a relatively stable fan base through short videos. In this case, because their lifestyles and concepts are influenced by overseas culture, their design styles often blend the styles of the two cultures, making them exotic while also meeting the aesthetic tastes of domestic consumers.

For example, @LuvLoops Jewellery on Xiaohongshu is a studio far away in London, but the brand manager is a Chinese. He will post some immersive packaging and decompression videos on the short video platform on a daily basis, and in the process, he will implicitly plant grass for consumers.

Image source: @LuvLoops Jewellery Xiaohongshu screenshot

Simple and exquisite accessories have captured the hearts of many consumers. Even though there are not many types of products on the shelves, each one has attracted a large enough user base and they are often sold out.

In addition, the common characteristic of "far away from home" has evoked the homesickness of many wanderers and helped her expand a number of local Chinese customers in London, which further contributed to the success of her career.

Obviously, from the product perspective, whether in terms of source or creativity, compared to the fiercely competitive domestic anchors, overseas bloggers have already taken a certain lead. We will wait and see what kind of energy they can unleash in the future.

Author: Jiangbei

WeChat public account: Kas Data