Foreign faces win netizens' hearts

Raz Galor and a member of his crew dress in costume to record an episode of his show. Provided to China Daily

Splendors China, a six-part documentary recently aired by China Central Television, highlighted Galor as an example of the new breed of foreign entrepreneurs that is tapping the vast demand for online content.

Saul Stollery, a Tsinghua University graduate from the United Kingdom, is another example. Last year, he launched a show using Inke, a livestreaming app, in which he sings songs and chats with his audience.

For the past four years, Canadian foodie Trevor James has also been regularly posting a program called The Food Ranger to YouTube and Bilibili in which he travels to Chinese cities to try the local street food. The University of British Columbia graduate got the idea after moving to Sichuan province to enroll in a cookery school.

James' most recent episode, Silk Road Food Trip, in which he visits cities along the ancient Silk Road, has been viewed more than 1.7 million times on Bilibili and has been on the video-sharing site's top 20 list for weeks.

"The rising fame of foreign video bloggers shows that, in China's internet sphere, fan economics is still a dominant force," said Fu Xiaoguang, an associate professor at the Communication University of China.

"From traditional beauty and cosmetic internet celebrities, the fact foreign faces are becoming famous indicates that young fans today choose to watch content that is more culture-related."

Views also mean money. According to data from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, internet celebrities generated more than 58 billion yuan through various revenue streams last year.

"Internet celebrities attract a lot of attention, which can easily translate into cash through online advertising and e-commerce," according to Ding Chenling, the founder of Redbang, a consulting company in Beijing.

Due to its large fan base, The Foreigners Research Institute has received a flood of offers from advertisers, according to Galor. "For the first 30 videos, we had 16 commercial sponsors," he said, adding that the first agreement was signed with Meitu, a company that makes photo-editing apps.

After making inroads in China, Galor and his partners are now looking to expand their brand to a wider audience. Work has already started to recruit employees overseas to share the show on social media in other countries, he said.