Shin Dong-yeop’s YouTube, popular in the early days
For long run, guest dependency must be reduced.
Reporter Ryu Ye-ji of Ten Asia looks into the future of the entertainment industry and its impact.
Shin Dong-yeop's YouTube channel 'Sweet Brother' is gaining flashes of popularity. In the beginning, when he, a lover of alcohol and a master of 19-year-old talk, created a YouTube channel, the response was so enthusiastic that some even said he was 'disturbing the ecosystem', but after about two months, it quickly turned sour. It was really short and thick.
Shin Dong-yeop opened a YouTube channel called ‘Sweet Brother Shin Dong-yeop’ last August. Shin Dong-yeop, who was active in 'Animal Farm', 'True Story Expedition', 'Amazing Saturday', and 'My Little Old Boy', drank with guests on 'Salty Brother Shin Dong-yeop' and revealed everything from 19+ talk to behind-the-scenes stories of the entertainment industry, garnering attention day after day. . About 10 days after the channel was released, the number of subscribers exceeded 300,000, and currently (as of the 20th) it has exceeded 650,000.
What if you give Shin Dong-yeop alcohol and people? It is truly a fish out of water. Due to the nature of YouTube, talk topics are more diverse and freer than terrestrial broadcasting, so his 19-year-old ad-libs naturally become jokes. This is a bold use of his weekly image.
The concept itself was simple, but the guests were extravagant. Hyori Lee appeared as the first guest. The two broadcasts about Lee Hyori's past stories recorded 5.55 million and 3.53 million views, respectively. Actors Lee Kyung-young and Ha Ji-won appeared one after another. The appearance of mystical stars who do not usually appear on entertainment shows also showed popularity, reaching over 4 million views.
The problem started from then on. SHINee's Key, Hwasa, Hong Jin-kyung, and Sunmi appeared, but there was no particular reaction. Except for Key, the rest of the stars stayed in the low 1 million views. Key also had a high cumulative number of views because he was the first to be broadcast among the four.
Kim Gura recently said this on his YouTube channel. “YouTube won’t last long if someone does it for you.” In other words, if you lead YouTube based on the popularity or capabilities of your guests, it will be difficult to run it for a long time.
This is exactly the content worthy of Shin Dong-yup. In the end, it is difficult to escape the glitter craze unless a top star or mysterious celebrity appears. Shin Dong-yeop once told Sung Si-kyung that he would not be on YouTube for a long time. If Shin Dong-yeop just does it as a hobby out of boredom, there is no problem.
However, if Shin Dong-yeop plans to continue growing YouTube in the future, the story will be different. 'Sulbang', where people just drink and talk with the camera on, can already be seen on entertainment shows and other YouTube channels. Since it was Shin Dong-yup and there was a fancy guest, it was only popular in the beginning.
Seong Si-kyung expressed to Shin Dong-yup, "Why are you doing YouTube? Just because you are doing YouTube is like a large supermarket entering a grandmother's traditional market." But now you don’t have to worry about Seong Si-kyung either. The effect of the opening of a large supermarket did not last as long as expected.
Ryu Ye-ji, Ten Asia Reporter ryuperstar@tenasia.co.kr