27:02
Testing, testing, testing, test, test, test, test. Food content dominates every online platform. It's algorithm friendly, advertiser safe, and universally relatable. Because everyone eats, and the potential for virality is high, food content is one of the easiest ways to build an audience, but also one of the hardests to stand out in. These days, it's no longer the celebrity chefs, high production cooking competitions, and exotic food travel shows that get the most views, but instead mukbangs, which roughly translate to eating broadcasts in Korean. What started as a small niche years ago where people posted videos of themselves binging extreme portions now serves as an umbrella term for any form
of eating content. The appeal of mukbangs lies in the consumption, not the cooking or critique. Mukbangers speak directly to the camera or not at all, reacting in real time, chowing down in their cars or homes. Like influencers, they invite viewers into a casual parasocial relationship. Some take just a few bites, others eat everything, but most feature abnormally large portions. With huge bites, loud chewing, and messy eating, mukbangs are part ASMR, part shock value. They allow viewers a sort of escapism where they can indulge without the guilt of gluttony. Top mukbangers have carved out millions of followers and earned thousands of dollars, feasting on fast food, snacks, and local restaurant fair.
From the outside, it looks like a cushy gig. But on the inside, it's a saturated market with fierce competition where creators must set themselves apart, even as new entrance stand by, ready to copy them. In this episode, we dive into the economics and grind of mukbangs through the eyes and appetites of three content creators. A breakout star and put both tacos inside. A little bit of the avocado sauce, and now you have a caliente supreme quadilla. That is spicy. A rising newcomer. The sweetness of the biscoff paired with the salty bacon. Someone call Gordon Ramsay. And a scrappy growth hacker. I drove two hours for these things. I don't want to eat him. He looks like a good boy.
Today is chaos for every business owner. Commerce has turned volatile as tariffs get slapped on and then removed, trade policies shift, and geopolitical tensions flare up week to week. While economists continue to deny that we're in a recession, and that the stock market is booming, inflation is still up, consumer spending is slowing, unemployment is increasing, and layoffs persist in every industry. With labor shortages and supply chains under pressure, cash flow is tighter than ever. Business has always been about evolution. But if you can't adapt in real time, especially in these moments, you're in for a world of hurt. What every business needs now more than ever is total visibility. From global
shipments to tariff impacts to real-time cash flow, that's Netswuite by Oracle, your AI powered business management suite. Trusted by over 41,000 companies, Netswuite is the number one cloud ERP for many reasons. It brings accounting, financial management, inventory, HR into one suite. You have one source of truth, giving you the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. With real-time forecasting, you're peering into the future with actionable data. And with AI embedded throughout, you can automate those everyday tasks, letting your team stay strategic. Netswuite helps you know what's stuck, what's it's costing you, and how to pivot fast.
Modern MBA is small at the moment, but as soon as we scale, we will need and use Netswuite. Today, we're stitching things manually, and it's hard to assess business health. As a corporation, we pay tax throughout the year, and it's a nightmare jumping from system to system just to get one answer. These are capabilities that only Netswuite provides, and it's a platform that we intend to take every advantage of. It's one system with full control that can help you tame the chaos. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, download the free book, Navigating Global Trade: Three Insights for Leaders, at netswuite.com/modernba.
The guide is free to you at netswuite.com/modernba. What's up, man? What are the top three sandwiches that you recommend for me? The Fat Texas, I'll be number one. The number two, I fat Coos. And the number three, I'll say the Jerry. Texas Coos and the Jerry. They're all really solid sandwiches. Sounds good. I have all three to him. I'll be sure. I got you. Nate Lo, who goes by Nate, ranks among the leading mukbangers thanks to his impressive 700,000 Tik Tok followers and 100,000 Instagram fans. For him, it's not necessarily what he eats or how he eats it. Food is just the hook, and his real edge is personality.
He isn't chasing every trend. Instead, he's focused on delivering his own stream of consciousness while he eats. Mukbangers get a lot of views. They get like 20, 30 mil, and their videos go viral. Because if you think about it, food is a universal language. It can be pushed to any type of audience, and everyone can understand that you're eating this food. I'm one of the yappers and I talk a lot in my videos. I don't really review. I don't really do like crazy big eating mukbangs. I just basically talk and eat. I don't really watch other food content or mukbangers. That way I don't accidentally say exactly what they be saying.
Bro, why would they do this to me? They be playing with me. LA, man. Damn. It's fine. I'll get through here. Testing, testing, testing. Test. Cherry and Booty Today we're trying the best sandwiches in LA. Today we're trying the best sandwiches in LA. This place is called Fat Sal. Oh my goodness. I want whatever I say to come right off the top of my head. So whenever I'm in the car, I just make sure that what I say is unique to me.
Oh, I know. This cannot be healthy. Those French fries evenly cooked. That main MVP inside of this sandwich is that brisket. It is super sweet yet juicy. You really taste that smokehouse flavor. Oh, I can't I don't even want to know how many calories this is. Ooh, a little bit of caramelized onions.
Oh, this is delicious. At the end of the day, Nate's at the mercy of the algorithm. The mukbang subg genre that he settled on is ultimately what's produced the best results. I think us food content creators have noticed that the best thing for us to do is establish our personality and our persona first. It's starting to get hot in LA. I'm cooking inside of this car. Next, we have the fat coug. I think that's what they call it. Fat coug. Something like that.
You don't need no condiments. Everything you need. Everything you need is inside of this sandwich right here. Them fries. more. I don't like to film every day because I noticed for some reason Tik Tok drops my views when I do that and sometimes I do catch myself repeating. I would be saying the same thing over and over again and then when I put it out, people are like, "Bro, it's the same video, but just different foods." Nate's locked into his style. He always wears a blue hat and a white shirt so the food can pop on camera. He plans content a month ahead, rotating between fast food, ethnic spots, chains, and mom and pops so his feed is never predictable. even though fast food
drives the most views and he never films for more than 20 minutes. When other food content creators are doing what just released at the time, I decided I'll do something that other food content creators aren't doing. So, let's say Taco Bell drops a new menu item. I'm just going to do Arby's because like who the hell eats at Arby's, bro? Like, who really like no one does that? Whoever orders this is a certified freak. I just leave the camera rolling. I never really do the stops or takes or anything because it allows me to be authentic, unique, and then also it doesn't allow the food to get cold. I'm starting to get full crap.
I for one and I for one am not quite fond of pastrami. We always want to make sure that the food looks presentable on camera. Oh. Oh, look how that just glisten in the sunlight. The lighting is perfect and it doesn't look like it just had it sitting in the bag for a while. Oh yeah. Oh, that's fire. Once I'm past like 20 minutes, then I realize I'm just overthinking what I'm doing. I film on my phone, edit it on my computer. I think I've been doing this for such a while now that it's kind of quick for me
to edit real quick. It takes like, I say, 30 minutes for me to edit. So, in general, it just takes me an hour to do like one video. Nate's journey is one born of trial and error. For eight years, he chased the YouTube dream. Comedy, skits, group bits, gaming content, none of it landed. I was doing like two videos a week, forcing all my friends to get in the videos, creating elaborate ways to make vlogs or different things, and it never went anywhere. The most I did was like 2,000 subscribers, and that's about it.
Then came a video he filmed of himself trying Mexican snacks for a friend, not an audience. There's mango in it. Chammoy. This is the ice cream version, not the uh resp. Not going to lie. Why is there so much spice to it? I just wanted, you know, make a funny video. probably like two weeks later I put on TikTok and then it just went viral. It went like I think three mill. So for a whole year I was doing like Mexican foods and all that because I didn't even think in my head that I could do all foods. Then after a year in I started doing fast foods and local joints. And the more I started doing it, the bigger audience I grew and
I realized that this can become a full-time thing. Very chewy, very delicious, very addicting. that YouTube grind really taught me all these tips and tricks to make it very appealing to the audience without making it seem like why am I watching this? You know, if I had to rank them, I'd go that I would go with the sweet brisket, that chicken cutlet, and then the pastrami. All of them are amazing. Over 1500 calories for sure. Nate doesn't even see himself as a mukbanger. And with the way business is developing, it's less advantageous to identify as one.
I do use the hashtagmukbang because that'll get the views or whatever, but I never really consider myself that because I'm not finishing all the food and I'm not eating big lump sums of food. Whenever we talk to the brands and we have to do a deal with them, a few of the brands now recently have been saying to stay away from mukbang style videos, they want just mostly clean eating and trying the food and saying how it is. I woke up really early for this. A little bit of that drizzle action. Nate's growth has been rapid. He first started posting on Tik Tok in 2022. The following year, he broke 500,000 followers and got signed to a talent agency. Even though his initial virality was serendipitous, Nate has studied the
landscape. There's a distinction between short and long form and performance on one platform doesn't guarantee success on another. I'm going just give it away. It's a lot of food. and then take it off. For Tik Tok, I feel like their algorithm is amazing. You can become famous on Tik Tok way easier than any other platform. YouTube, I'm still not successful on. I'm trying. That's like the main goal for everyone, I think, is to become a YouTuber. That's where you reap all the benefits. And then also, that's where you can have full creative control. And that means that you're a solidified influencer. You
know, I'm not an influencer. I'm a content creator. Tik Tok's payouts fluctuate, but Nate publishes 10 to 14 videos a month and grosses $1,000 for every million views. In a good month, he can make up to $8,000, but when views are down as low as $3,000. His average gross annual earnings through ad revenue alone is $78,000 with food costs topping out at $40 per video. Brand deals are an emerging but unpredictable revenue stream that pay between three to five figures. Since the commercial market for mukbangers is so immature relative to other types of influencers, rates vary wildly and creators are bound by non-disclosure agreements at both the brand and agency level. As a result, earnings from brand
deals have been omitted from these figures. Nate enjoys content creation far more than his old job as a bank teller. But even with the perks that come with performing in the top 1%, this isn't his endgame. Growing up, I always watched Travel Channel, Food Network, HGTV, just little shows that I swear I didn't think anybody else was watching except like the 40 and up crowd. For me, the purpose in life, I feel like, is traveling and experiencing new things that we've never experienced. Cuz you look at Anthony Bourdain, Samantha Brown, Andrew Zimmerman, their life is to go out and try new things and share it with an audience. This whole next year is really going to be trying to
focus on highquality long form videos on YouTube. That way hopefully one day by chance that Netflix gives me a little six episode series, you know, just something little. That way I can host like a travel show. That's my whole thing. I want a travel show real bad. I can't ask for no hand out. Can't do any of that and expect it to happen if I don't put the work in myself. Nate hit his stride during Tik Tok's formative years, but competition today is fiercer and saturation is greater. Hi. May I have the honey butter sandwich, please? Sure. Would you like our lunch special? Yes, please. By day, Elise works in real estate. On weekends, she's mukbang mommy. With 90,000 followers on Tik Tok and 7,000 on Instagram, Elise is newer to this corner
of the internet. For the sandwich, can I do the bonfire, please? Okay. Can I do the chicken and waffles, please? Sure, I can do that. And for your side, we have potato wedges, klelaw, cheese curds, and mac and cheese. The potato wedges, please. Okay, awesome. Anything else for you? Can I also get a vanilla shake, please? You don't have any shakes? No shakes. I know. No, I'm not at this location cuz I wanted to dip the chicken inside the shake like as one of the like clips. Um, so do you think maybe like I could do like what if you like sauce? Yeah, like a big sauce like a like it could give you something over.
Yeah, the dramatic. Yeah. Compared to Nate, her approach is quieter, more deliberate, and rooted in compassion. She started filming mukbang videos to help a friend overcome disordered eating. But what kept her going were the viewers who thanked her for helping them, too. She's quick to admit that she's still learning to navigate the intricacies of the craft. Prior to starting the video, you have to make sure your phone is completely charged. Making sure that I have the cords in order to plug my mic in and everything. For mukbang, like you really want just the crisp authentic sounds of the like chewing and the eating noises. So, when there's like ongoing traffic or making sure to park in a certain spot,
that's very important. There's been times where I had to rearrange the car like four times to see like what it the best lighting is and to make sure that the sun is not like on the food. I don't record past a certain time. Like 400 p.m. is about my cut off time because it starts getting dark and the lighting's just not where I want it to be. Let me Hello. Like Nate, Elise thinks long and hard about where and what she's going to eat in her next video. As a newer face, she doesn't shy away from trends, but instead dives into them to be a first mover whenever possible. Most of my
content right now currently is on Tik Tok and Instagram. So, I have to tend to that audience. So, I have a mix of content with food reviews, rating foods rather than just solely ASMR of things. This is their comeback. This is their comeback sauce, which is their signature sauce. That is so fluffy and dory inside. Wow. With that honey butter. Oh my gosh. M. That's good. Nothing better than some chicken and waffles. There's a lot of planning that goes behind the scenes. I plan what I'm going to order. I plan a plan B. So, just in case that they don't have what I'm looking to get, I know what to order next.
Guys, I'm so devastated. I drove all the way out here for the infamous Culver's curd burger. Tongue twister. They were sold out. You don't understand. I have been waiting for this curd burger for so long. But for today, we're trying the butter burger. I like following accounts that will post secret menu items or if there's a limited drop, then I will see what's the closest location next to that. So, if it's a franchise to like see how far the distance is just in case if I need to reroute. Let's try their loaded mac and cheese. Wow, this is a hefty. This is a complete bite right here. You get the mac and cheese.
You get the mac and cheese, potato wedges, chicken, and their comeback sauce. This feels like it weighs like three lbs. Give you a hefty amount of food. Why does that taste so spicy? In today's market, being the first to eat a certain type of food is an advantage that only lasts an hour or two at best. In her pink gloves, Elise focuses on the joy of eating, whether it's silent, messy, or just the latest viral food. At this smaller scale, she can still connect with every single viewer, even if the algorithms don't reward her for it. I really love the Mukbang community. For me, it's very important to be intentional with the
content that I put out. As much as you think like what you consume like visually doesn't affect you, I think it really does affect the audience and the community watching. I know some people watch for solely the purpose of entertainment, but I know that there's also another portion of the community that watches because they might have destructive eating habits or they might have a fear around food. As creators, I feel like we dance on a fine line of what is good versus what can be destructive to our audience. To Elise, forcing food down or chewing only to spit it all out off camera is a cardinal sin. Her dream is to be a full-time
mukbanger, but the clash between her personal values and the current market trend towards performative binge eating has made it tricky to grow. My motto is to show that I'm really enjoying the food. Look at how beautiful that is. I feel like it's glistening. Wow. The sweetness paired with the spice is next level. I do have videos where I will do a challenge. I love a good challenge, but I think it's important to stop eating when I stop enjoying the food. I think the future of mukbangs are just going bigger and bigger. I think uh content creators are just getting more extravagant with their videos because they're being rewarded for those extravagant videos. Personally, I kind of wish that more people did just
regular mukbangs because it kind of is a little bit harder to survive off of just regular mukbang ASMR content. Elise posts eight videos a month on average. Last year, she spent $4,000 on food, or roughly $45 per shoot, but earned just $3,800 from Tik Tok ads. A few brand deals with fast food chains brought in another $2,000. But without an agent, those offers were rare. It's not a sustainable income, but for Elise, every video is still a labor of love. For shooting my video itself, it could take probably about an hour with setup. And then for editing, I think I average about four to five hours just for like a short form video. I talked to plenty of content creators who tell me that they
edit their videos within like 30 minutes to an hour. It's really important for me to put my full effort into my videos. And for me, quality takes a long time. Ah, they're after me. I've been eating too much. Yseph dabbled in content as a teenager, uploading Minecraft clips to YouTube, and transitions to Tik Tok. Let's do obviously the triple dipper. We got to do Yeah, let's do Nashville hot mozzarella sticks, honey chipotle chicken crispers, and then we'll do um southwestern egg roll for the third option, a side of buffalo sauce, and then I want a side of the honey chipotle. And then I want the bigger the slightly bigger container of
ranch. Yeah. Anything else for you? Uh that's it. And everything should be ready about 10 to 15 minutes. Awesome. Two years ago, when his random food review took off, it was a sign that he had been waiting for to quit his construction job and to do content full-time. Uh, usually I be I order beforehand so the order can just be ready by the time I arrive, but I was way too tired today to do that, which I'm going to regret cuz it's going to take like 15 20 minutes now, which is fine, but I'm a little impatient. I just right now turned on my AC because so many times you'll go and film and it'll be really hot in the car and it messes up the video so much because it ruins your momentum and you start getting sweaty and you look really bad
on camera and the camera gets steamy sometimes when it's too hot. With 400,000 subscribers on YouTube and 35,000 followers on Tik Tok, his challenge these days is not building an audience, but instead driving consistent viewership. I mess around with everything, man. I'll have videos that will do really good where I'm comparing like fast food items, but then recently, let's say I did a video on Dave's Hot Chicken where I didn't talk at all and that blew up. I'm just still in the middle of trying everything out and finding my stride. Okay, I'm so excited for this. I've studied the algorithm for a very long time. unprofessionally since I was 16, professionally for the last three years. So, I've learned that doing
certain actions, saying certain things, the algorithm likes and now it's saved it in its quote unquote memory and now next time you do something similar to that, it'll blow up again. That's why you see a lot of creators when they make a viral video, they'll recreate that video and put a twist to it. I or I ordered a salad and it gave me a Chili's triple dipper instead. To Ysef, virality is a science. Study, test, and iterate to find the winning formula. Good lighting, strong audio, and clear angles are just the baseline. He builds every video on pattern recognition, believing that with enough persistence, success can be reverse engineered. Trying Chili's Quarter Pounder Burger for the first time. We got some chilies. Let's eat some
There are very important factors to the video that once you hit that, like the rest of it doesn't need to be as thoroughly planned. And that factor, let's say being the intro, that is like super important. The first 3 seconds. Let's eat some chilies. We got a carnivore style platter. Is this the best breakfast burrito in Los Angeles? It's the first impression for the audience. They see you, they're like, "This is what I expect from this person." And that's really the whole creative process is having people understand this is me. If you like the things that I do and the way I act and the videos I take, that's why you should follow me.
No. Nashville hot. Nashville hot honey chapado ranch. Nashville hot honey chipotle ranch. There's sort of three types of videos I can envision myself making. A video where I talk and eat. All right, look at that cheese melting there. Okay, flying Dutchman, I see what you got. A video where I don't talk and eat. And then sometimes there's so many people out there, let's say with Chipotle, they're making a giant Chipotle burrito. I got to try that. First things first, you're going to add your cheese. A lot of people become curious as to how you can make that. So, if you make an instructional video explaining on how you can make that burrito, then that brings value to people and they're way more likely to
engage, which gives the algorithms the signs of like, oh, people value this video. Let's send it out to more. Who makes the best fast food mozzarella stick? In his best performing video, Ysef has injected novelty into predictable fast food staples. Sometimes it's rating the same food from multiple chains. Other times, it's placing a massive, never-beforeseen order. Chipotle just came out with a brand new smoked brisket. And to celebrate, I got the biggest burrito possible. When I get a normal Chipotle burrito, compared to spending like $50 for a big Chipotle burrito, the big one will get 10 times the amount of views because that's just what the algorithm already knows is good. Chili's has been a good boy today.
While Ysef works to zone in on his niche, every aspect from the catchphrases and mannerisms are all open to experimentation. He openly draws inspiration from other mukbangers. $5 chicken versus $21 chicken. $5 fish sandwich versus $80 fish sandwich. Today we're trying your Taco Bell orders. Today I'm trying your Taco Bell orders. Over under 4.5 bites to finish this Costco chicken bake. Over under 1.5 bites of this Big Mac from McDonald. It's 2 am. But he draws the line at Rage Clicks and is clear on how far it's too far. There's this trend where people are like stacking up 15 cups of cup noodles and saying 10 cups of noodles mood. And it's like it's it's just weird
because they're not putting in dedication or time into their videos. They're trying to show a sort of comedy that comes with self-depreciation, like putting yourself down for being fat and like kind of rage baiting people into commenting in your videos because you know it'll piss them off. Once you cross that line of like the things you will do to get attention from people, at that point you're selling your soul to the devil. And that I honestly I just don't respect it. It's just um it's it's a it's like a shortcut people like to take to like get clout. What we've all been waiting for. Chile's new QP Chili's new quarter pounder burger.
Oh yeah. We got a little issue though. This could be a little cheesier. This and a little saucier. Oh jeez. This shit's like dripping. Okay, some water. While most creators will make one video out of every meal, Ysef plans his shoots so far in advance, so he cranks out multiple videos out of a single meal, each with their own structure. Okay, I think I'm good enough with the talking. Now, let's eat. I'm able to spread out the videos a lot easier by taking one place that I go eat at and I'll eat 2,000 calories in one go or 2500 calories in one go, but then
I'll make three different videos out of it. Ysef films four meals per week and makes at least two videos from each, an average of 32 videos every month. Each takes about 30 minutes to film and an hour to edit. He hasn't cracked the top 1% just yet, but he's shrewdly maximized every opportunity, earning around $5,000 a month in Tik Tok ads and sponsorships for an annual run rate of $60,000. Ysef actively pitches restaurants to pay him out of their marketing budgets. And today, he's getting paid extra to feature the snack brand, even if frozen grapes and hot burgers make for an unusual pairing. Look how giant this ball is.
Look how giant these balls are. Oh my god. You got to do you got to try something diabolical. What about this one? Tell me why that worked. Tell me why sour grapes and chicken tenders work. Tell me why sour grapes and chicken tenders work. We're good. My stomach has reached the limit. I'm done. Usually in the end, not now, but like towards the end of a week or something, I'll just get a detail of the car. I'll detail the car. Just pay like whatever $40 $50 to someone and they'll get rid of all the oil and stuff that has the
oil and the sauce that has gone on the wheels. It is a little annoying to drive with, but I get home, I wash my hands, I shower, I use baby wipes to clean this a bit, and then I just get a detail eventually. But uh you know there's pros and cons to every job and keeping clean is very hard to do with mukbangs. mukbangs might seem like an easy side hustle. Just eat and go viral. But as Nate, Elise, and Yseph demonstrate, real success requires more than an appetite. It takes differentiation, persistence, and a sharp business strategy.
