How ordinary people become extraordinary

Heo Jae-won, better known on YouTube as Heopop, is a popular YouTube creator with 1.8 million subscribers. He has drawn attention mostly from elementary school students for his hilarious, experimental YouTube videos of activities including eating food and trying out cosmetics. / Courtesy of Heopop blog

Rise of one-man media undercuts old media's influence

By Kang Hyun-kyung, Jung Da-min

Until a few years ago, Heo Jae-won, better known on YouTube as “Heopop,” was a young college graduate who, he believed, had no future.

Born with a “mud spoon” in his mouth, he struggled to make ends meet. He wanted a breakthrough in his life and prepared to emigrate to Australia to seek a second chance.

To make seed money to finance his dream Heo, 31, chose to become a courier.

His tough life, however, continued. His work was physically demanding but his salary didn't reflect the long hours he put in.

In 2015, Heo created his own YouTube channel “HeopopFamily” and began to share videos on it. After six months, a video of him eating pancake Kakao bread went viral.

Kids were fascinated with his “meok-bang,” or eating show, and shared it with their friends.

With 1.8 million subscribers, Heo is one of the nation's top 20 YouTube creators.

“Heo no longer considers emigration,” said An Jeong-ki, the author of the book “Influencers: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary.” An had worked with Heo on the 2017 book project, “Becoming a YouTube Creator,” a guidebook designed to help aspiring YouTube creators build their own channels.

“Heo makes tens of millions of won every month through his YouTube channel, which has become popular particularly among elementary school children,” An said.

YouTube creators make money from advertisements served on their videos and from subscribers who watch their content.

“Heo's success shows how a social media channel has transformed an ordinary college graduate into the extraordinary man exerting enormous influence on his target audience,” An said.

In the offline world, terms like come-from-behind victory or self-made people have rapidly been disappearing from dictionaries.

People lament “creek dragons,” referring to highly successful self-made people, are going extinct as wealth and socio-economic status are passed down from one generation to the next. Less wealthy people are trapped in a vicious circle of poverty, having almost no chance of upward mobility.

The online world, however, defies this reality. Like Heopop, some have a successful second chance on the internet after producing appealing content for their target audiences.

The online world has emerged as a goldmine for people who have business acumen but no money to invest, causing the soaring of YouTube channels run by individuals in various topics and fields.

“Competition is heavy there,” said Lee Seung-yun, a professor at Konkuk University in Seoul who co-authored “Influencers” with An.

“Becoming a top 10 YouTube creator and having millions of subscribers is as tough as a camel passing through the eye of the needle in the old proverb. Despite that rare chance, like Heopop, there are still people who succeed amid the survival-of-the-fittest competition.”

Unlike traditional media, often called “legacy media” by some authors, the one-man media updates content on a daily basis. YouTube channels are more accessible than traditional media because subscribers can watch YouTube videos on smartphones anytime anywhere. YouTube channels are interactive, too; creators can respond to messages left on their channels.

The rise of YouTube creators has fueled the power shift in the media industry.

As seen in the ongoing #MeToo campaign that brought many celebrities and high-profile figures down, or in the 2017 candlelit rallies that cut ex-President Park Geun-hye's tenure short, author An said the era for ordinary people has arrived and they are able to make their voices heard, even without experience or training in journalism.

The demographic cohort, dubbed “Generation Z” or “post-millennials” are the key driver behind such a revolution-like change in the media industry. Generation Z refers to a demographic cohort born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.

“They are the wireless generation. Mobile phones, and later smartphones, are an integral part of their lives,” An said. They are tech-savvy people and consume content mostly through their smartphones. For them, the smartphone is much more than a communication tool and they use it to create their own YouTube content with photos or videos they shoot. They share their content with their friends.”

One-man media, however, is still an online phenomenon. Many star YouTubers are not known to the public offline. But their influence on the internet is enormous. “1 Million Dance Studio” is one of the most powerful YouTube channels with 8.6 million subscribers.

“They are really famous abroad. People recognize them,” An said. “I bet they are one of the most popular dance groups in the world. The creator of the YouTube channel once operated a dance studio for boy and girl bands. The channel enjoys worldwide success.”

The role of one-man media has been evident in K-pop. Boy band BTS owes their global success to YouTube users in the Philippines, according to An.

Philippine fans were early adaptors of the once obscure K-pop boy band. “Fans in the Southeast Asian country created YouTube videos in English about the boy band and shared them with their friends, which spread rapidly to Western fans. These dedicated fans' YouTube files helped teenagers in other countries understand the lyrics of BTS songs,” An said.

Professor Lee said one-man media will keep growing.

“I believe their influence will expand further in the future. I don't think they will outgrow or replace legacy media. But one thing that is highly likely to happen is that because of the rise of one-man media, the legacy media won't be as influential as it has been. At the moment, many popular YouTube channels are designed for teenagers and people in their 20s. As these people grow older and enter their 30s and they will continue to watch their favorite content as long as it meets their expectations.”

Lee said the growing popularity of one-man media is irreversible in an aging society.

“The older generation retired from work when they were in their late 50s. Then they spent their savings for the next 15 or 20 years until they died,” he said. “Life expectancy has increased and sooner or later the average person will be able to live to 100.”

The aging society has raised a key question _ how can we finance lives for 40 or 50 years after retirement? “The answer is that all of us need to be creators,” Lee said. “We need to produce content of interest in order to make a living.”