為什麼外籍YTER在台灣的時代結束了！Why it’s OVER for Foreign Youtubers in Taiwan!

The golden age of foreign youtubers in Taiwan is done and it's all this guy's fault. Yes, I'll explain a little bit more about why I think Koo's Dream is to blame for the downfall of the entire genre of foreign youtubers in Taiwan a little later in the video, so keep watching for that little nugget of juicy gossip. Koo's Dream's YouTube channel is just too fucked. But first, let me clarify what I mean by foreign youtubers in Taiwan because not every foreigner making videos in Taiwan falls into this category of foreign youtubers in Taiwan. Take for example my good friend Jesus, possibly one of the earliest foreigners in Taiwan to be making content on YouTube as his first video was published in September 2011, 15 years ago. But he actually began by making Spanish teaching content and didn't transition into Taiwanese focused content until a couple of years later. But I'm actually excluding him as one of your typical foreigner in Taiwan youtubers as he doesn't follow the golden rules of becoming a foreigner in Taiwan youtuber. Speak English, film yourself eating Taiwanese food, say everything is awesome and of course say how much you love Taiwan. Which may seem like an oversimplification of the genre, but this formula has worked for many years for many youtubers, including myself to some extent. So in this video I'm going to be using a whole load of data farmed from YouTube combined with a healthy helping of my subjective opinion to show why I think it's over for foreign youtubers in Taiwan and we may have to actually get a proper job sometime in the near future. And talking of proper jobs, let me take a quick minute to introduce my personal one-on-one online English teaching system where I'm helping Taiwanese English learners improve their English ability either for work, travel or just self-improvement. I've got over 18 years of teaching experience in the country of Taiwan and I understand exactly what Taiwanese people need when it comes to learning English and I'm pretty confident I can help you boost your English level through some fun, relaxed, conversation-based English lessons that are focused exactly on your needs as to how to improve. There's a link to my website in the description down below where you can find my contact details or indeed complete the online assessment form and I'll get back to you with a personalized English plan and get you learning and improving ASAP. But I think that's enough about my proper job, so let's get back on topic and talk about why I think it's over, done, finished, finito finito for foreign youtubers in Taiwan. And I think a good place to start is talking about why I personally think that this genre was so successful in Taiwan in the first place because I think the idea is quite alien to any people outside of Taiwan. This whole concept of paying so much attention and watching foreigners giving their opinion on your own country doesn't really appeal to many other countries. I know that personally if I lived in England and a Taiwanese youtuber was using Chinese to introduce my local culture, my food and architecture telling me how great he thinks steak and kidney pies are or Sunday lunches or English breakfast is, I wouldn't really take much of an interest or care too much about their opinion. And I think that the majority of British people wouldn't be too interested in this type of content. But the same can't be said for Taiwanese people when it comes to watching foreigners talking about their own country of Taiwan. And I think there's a fundamental basic reason as to why it is so popular and I have to be very careful with how I say it, how I phrase it. But mostly down to Taiwan's interesting political status. Any validation, accreditation or affirmation coming from people from other countries is much more warmly received by Taiwanese viewers than it would be received by people from countries with a regular political status. Again, I'm being very careful with how I choose my words here. But just as much as I believe that Taiwan is an independent country and functions in much the same way as many other independent countries do, it's an objective fact that many other countries around the world don't recognize Taiwan as an independent state or nation. Which is of course quite heartbreaking not only for the Taiwanese people that live here and deserve that recognition but also for the foreigners that live here and are so warmly welcomed by the Taiwanese with open arms. But this does mean that watching an American, British, French, Canadian or any other country's YouTubers praising Taiwan, saying how amazing things are here and validating Taiwan as a country really resonates with the Taiwanese viewing audience and as such videos in the past have racked up hundreds of thousands if not millions of views regardless of the video quality, production value or indeed whether or not the informational reaction was actually genuine. But as with all popular crazes people get used to it, get bored of it or indeed quite possibly get annoyed by it after a certain amount of time. And the facts and figures and the data prove exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to most YouTubers. There are some exceptions and I'll get into some details and numbers a little bit later in the video to show you exactly how YouTubers are falling off the platform and how views are going down for every foreign YouTuber that I'm going to talk about. 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Go check out the links to Emma's website in my description down below and don't forget to use my code ALLAN2026 at checkout for extra discounts on top of the already awesome savings that Emma are offering in this season. Okay so thanks to Emma mattresses for sponsoring the video and continuing to support the channel but let's get back on topic and continue the reason as to why I think foreign YouTubers in Taiwan are done or at least have to change if they want to keep up with YouTube as a whole. And the first thing I want to do is of course explain to you exactly why I think this change is happening because up until now everything I've said really is just based on observation and not actually looking at any numbers and many people may just think well Allan you're just being bitter because your numbers are the only ones that are going down it's you that's being affected and honestly probably a fair point my numbers have certainly gone down over the past five years at least there was a time in 2020-2021 when my sole income was from YouTube and people were watching views were higher per video and now yes every video despite the fact I'm making them fewer and far between views per video are definitely down on average I'm not going to sit here and pretend that my channel is immune to the changes I'm talking about in this video in fact on the contrary it's probably one of the main reasons I find this subject so interesting because I've been in this genre for so many years I've certainly benefited from it and now I'm starting to struggle from it it's more than fair that I address the fact that yes my views are probably the main reason I wanted to make this video I have made videos talking about Taiwanese culture eating Taiwanese food meeting Taiwanese people and of course I've made videos talking about why I love living here and those videos have worked in the past very well in some cases and yes there was definitely a period when being a foreigner in Taiwan making YouTube videos had a sort of cheat code foreign face positive reaction a little bit of Chinese thrown into the mix for good measure a title with something like British guy can't believe how amazing Taiwanese food is and of course a thumbnail packed full of descriptive Chinese that many foreigners probably don't even understand the Chinese that's going into their thumbnail but yes follow that cheat code and there's a high likelihood that your video will do very well incredibly well sometimes and I'm not sitting here criticizing the YouTubers that have done that I've certainly followed that cheat code for myself because if something works on YouTube then you're naturally going to make more videos that follow that formula if you upload one video that gets 30,000 views and another video the next week that gets 500,000 views you're certainly going to take a long look at that successful video and think right what did I do well in that video and let's do it again in the next video the problem with that is that other people see you doing that and they start to follow the same formula videos get copied and of course the audience starts to get bored there are only so many times a Taiwanese audience member is prepared to watch a foreigner eating stinky tofu for the first time and think oh wow so amazing there are only so many times you can watch a foreigner talking about how convenient Taiwanese convenience stores are and how amazing they are before you start to get bored and yes convenience stores are amazing they are very new very interesting to us as we simply don't have that many of them in the west yes they are amazing yes we've told you about it yes we've established our facts but now saying it over and over again repeating it for the nth time isn't going to work isn't going to wash with Taiwanese people but another factor that's really affecting the point that I'm talking about is Taiwan's international popularity or indeed its lack of international popularity and more specifically Taiwan's limitations when it comes to attracting an international audience yes Taiwan is becoming more internationally recognized than it was 20 years ago people are more aware of its political status with regards to the Chinese situation Taiwanese restaurants are popping up in more cities around the world the Taiwanese tourist board are doing their damn best to promote Taiwan in international cities around the world bubble tea is in most cities around the world despite the fact that many people don't actually know that it's Taiwanese but let's be honest Taiwan is still not Korea it's still not Japan and I don't mean that those countries are better in any way than Taiwan they're most certainly not in my opinion but they do have a more attractive pop culture and the international pop culture of those countries in particular is much more attractive to an international audience looking to watch videos about Asian culture and different Asian countries Japanese food is of course world renowned and has thousands of restaurants in international cities all over the world Japanese culture, Japanese anime is incredibly attractive especially to the younger Gen Z audience that are watching YouTube more and more and of course Japan is taught in history lessons all around the world when it comes to talking about international relationships but generally speaking there are millions, billions of people around the world that genuinely dream of visiting Japan the same can be said for Korea regarding its food, its fashion its beauty products are internationally renowned and of course that's not even without talking about K-pop K-pop is a world global phenomenon that has helped to drive Korean pop culture into homes and YouTube subscription lists all around the world so if you're a foreign YouTuber in Korea or Japan or some other Asian countries then you're not just speaking to people within that country you're speaking to people around the world so if you're a foreign YouTuber in Seoul or Tokyo and you're creating content about your experiences of being a foreigner living there you're probably not just speaking to Japanese or Korean people you're potentially speaking to the entire world your audience could be American, Australian, British, French, German, South African the world is your oyster when it comes to making content about those countries because of their internationally renowned culture pop culture that is which is generally what is more acceptable and more popular on YouTube channels promoting entertainment but Taiwan is different and I don't mean that as an insult but generally speaking Taiwanese pop culture is not famous around the world does Taiwan really have a pop culture? definitely doesn't have an international one and the pop culture of Taiwan is not as strong not as identifiable not as obvious as those countries that I've just mentioned I love Taiwan obviously I've lived here for 18 years and never had a bad word to say about the place maybe one or two bad words about the place but that's quite natural but the international audience for Taiwanese focused content is genuinely much smaller than it would be for Japan or Korea most people around the world are simply not searching for Taiwan in that search bar at the top of YouTube and that means that us foreign YouTubers have a natural glass ceiling our primary audience our target audience TA as it's put in many proposals for sponsors is naturally going to be only limited to Taiwanese people and once you've reached a significant percentage of Taiwanese people that are prepared to watch foreign YouTubers sharing their experiences here in Taiwan where do you go next? Taiwan only has a population of about 23 million people not all 23 million people are going to have YouTube accounts or watch YouTube and not all of those people that have YouTube accounts and watch YouTube are interested in foreigners experiences of us living here not all of the Taiwanese people watching YouTube speak English yes there are some foreign YouTubers speaking Chinese in their videos but that doesn't really affect the numbers I still feel that it's not a big factor when it comes to attracting Taiwanese viewers Ku who I will talk about later has proved that a video completely in French can get two to three million views just using Chinese subtitles the Taiwanese audience prepared to watch foreign YouTubers in Taiwan is becoming saturated so all of those foreign YouTubers that you see in Taiwan creating content are competing for the same relatively low relatively limited audience that are prepared to watch compare that with Japan and Korea a video about Japanese food can be watched by Japanese people but can also appeal to hundreds of millions of people around the world a video about being a foreigner in Korea can of course reach this Korean population but can also attract hundreds of millions of people that are interested in popular Korean culture but a video about Taiwan or Taiwanese food and culture particularly with a Chinese title and aimed primarily at Taiwanese audiences is going to mean that your audience is primarily domestic here in Taiwan because once the domestic audience gets bored you've got nowhere else to go you can't simply rely on hundreds of millions of international viewers to replace the Taiwanese audience that started watching your videos but as well as this rather limited interest in Taiwanese pop culture there is another reason and that's where I'm going to talk about Ku's dream because I do think that he is primarily part of the reason that the whole genre of foreign YouTubers in Taiwan has changed not because he's done anything wrong quite the opposite without brown nosing without flattering without Pai Ma Pi I think the problem is is that Ku's dream YouTube channel is just too good seriously he has blown every foreign YouTuber in Taiwan and many Taiwanese creators completely out of the water he's raised the bar raised the standard to a level that other foreign YouTubers in Taiwan simply cannot compete and Ku's dream isn't successful just because he's a foreigner in Taiwan sharing his culture he's created an entire show almost created an entire genre of YouTube for Taiwan and I think that's something as we as other foreign YouTubers in Taiwan have to acknowledge the level has changed of course many of you will know that I know Ku personally I've featured on his channel many times and watching him work watching the level of production that goes into one of his shows is simply unbelievable you wouldn't believe how seriously this guy takes his job and how much responsibility is on his shoulders what the **** why am I crying but anyway yes the traditional foreign YouTuber in Taiwan is based around one thing the foreigner the fact that he's or she is a foreigner trying Taiwanese foods trying Taiwanese experiences meeting Taiwanese people but Ku's dreams channel has taken this to another level they've transcended the foreign YouTuber in Taiwan label yes of course Ku is himself a foreigner a Frenchman for his sins but more than just being a foreigner he's created a show that has recurring themes it has recurring characters that we can connect to if you've watched Ku's channel for a long time you'll notice that Ku doesn't actually show up in most or at least many of his videos he's introduced characters, storylines, plots, themes that we all connect to and that we all love to tune into and every week that we watch one of Ku's videos we know we're going to be entertained can the same be said for any other foreign YouTuber in Taiwan? can the same be said for my channel? probably not and the Taiwanese audience have cottoned on to the fact that some foreign YouTubers myself included have kind of taken advantage of this Taiwanese interest in foreigners opinion and I think they've gotten wise to it and they're looking for much more than just a foreigner eating Taiwanese food meeting Taiwanese people all of those typical experiences that were so interesting 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years ago and now they're demanding entertainment and if you look at Ku's channel entertainment is certainly what you get above and beyond the level of just oh it's a foreigner experiencing Taiwan there's more to it than that and the game has changed and we as other mere mortal foreign YouTubers have to either accept and accept the fact that we're going to get lower views or indeed try to compete with Ku's channel which at this level is almost impossible he's gotten so successful he now has the brand, the finances to invest in his videos but yeah I think you will all agree with me if you watch his channel that he's definitely in a level of his own that's made it more difficult more challenging for us foreign YouTubers and I love him for that I love him for pushing the genre forward and making us all work harder challenge ourselves one other factor that I do want to mention that I think has affected the fall off of some Taiwanese foreign YouTubers I have 360,000 subscribers if I had 360,000 views on every video I would be set I would be making lots of money as it happens I'm more likely making 30 to 40,000 views per video which is certainly not enough to keep the lights on the difference between a 30,000 view video every week and a 300,000 view video every week is literally as you would expect 10 times the income and if you take that to the next level and say a 3 million view video every week as some YouTubers are getting that's a hundred times the income of what I would be making with 30,000 views per video the difference in numbers is absolutely staggering if you actually take a look at my facts and figures you'll see that like 60% of my viewers are not even subscribers the majority of my subscribers don't watch any of my videos might be a great time to remind you to subscribe to the channel if you're enjoying this kind of content this kind of commentary video that I sometimes make but yes just because you see a YouTuber has half a million subscribers doesn't mean that they're successful they've maybe been successful and they've fallen off or maybe they've given up gone to a different pasture gone to different avenues to make their money but yes don't always look at the number of subscribers of a YouTuber and think that means they're successful in fact if you look at a YouTuber with a huge number of subscribers but a low number of views this supports my argument in this video that a lot of foreign YouTubers are getting much fewer views than they do have subscribers I think that applies to almost most foreign YouTubers so as I said at the start of the video the whole genre has changed has been affected many foreign YouTubers are looking into other avenues to make money does that mean the whole genre is completely dead and over it's done with and you won't see any foreign YouTubers on Taiwan YouTube anymore of course not it just means we have to try better we have to compete for all-important views to bring in that all-important income but yes as I said we need to become better which is a little bit annoying because it was really nice in the old system where I could just go and eat a bowl of beef noodles 100,000 views go eat Taiwanese breakfast 500,000 views say how safe is Taiwan 1 million views money in the bank that old system was great convenient very easy to make money but now we need to be better we need to be more entertaining and to be honest if we can't be entertaining then what the hell are we doing on YouTube in the first place we don't belong to be here if we're not entertaining people or at least informing them or at least have people that are interested in what we've got to say so hopefully in the future the whole genre of foreign YouTubers in Taiwan will get better will get more entertaining will get higher quality because of people like Poo pushing the genre forwards and that means greater more better yeah subscribe to my English channel better videos for you to watch and maybe fewer YouTubers will exist on the platform but those YouTubers will be of a better quality let me know in the comment section down below about your YouTube habits regarding foreign YouTubers in the country have you stopped watching any YouTubers have you started watching any new ones or indeed have you started watching more threads based content more Instagram reels short videos short content which is another threat to long-form content on the platform whatever you've got to say let me know in the comment section down below and of course don't forget to go check out the link to Emma Mattresses if you want to improve your sleeping system improve your quality of sleep all of the information for Emma is down in the description down below but as for now as always time to say goodbye I'll see you next time in my life in Taiwan peace bye