Within the culinary world, there are celebrity chefs - and then there are celebrities for simply celebrating food in its purest, most authentic form. Among the latter, few command a bigger audience than Mark Wiens, whose YouTube channel has reigned as a global authority on street food culture for over a decade. The Thai-American internet icon has amassed more than 10 million subscribers and 2.
It was during this nomadic period from 2008-2010, living at one point in Bangkok to stretch his travel funds, that the idea of vlogging first took root."I said, I might as well try video, because I was already invested into blogging...video might be interesting. And it might be more fun than blogging.
"My typical strategy is I always focus on YouTube as my longer-form content....But I am always having the short form or other formats in the back of my head at the same time. I can take the content and in post-production, I can edit for other shorter formats, different dimensions." "I like being able to go into a place very unobtrusively and trying to capture a more raw and authentic experience," he says."Whereas with a bigger production crew, it can be very meaningful...but it's a bit harder and sometimes needs to be fabricated a little bit. Both sides have their benefits and drawbacks."
"As you release a piece of content you can get almost immediate feedback. Whether that be through comments, direct messages or emails...it's really good in that way. It's instant feedback rather than TV where you might not get any feedback."