Skip Ad
Super-sized
income
Gobbling food online can be lucrative
– especially if you point the camera
at your child, finds Amelia Tait
ZHANG QICHEN/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES, JEROME GENCE, MICHAEL
RICHTER/GETTY, BAFANA FAMILY, CANDOO FAMILY, CHEAP LAZY
VEGAN/THECHEAPLAZYVEGAN.COM, PARK SEO-YEON, YE KWON TV
38 | NewScientist | 23 March 2019
IKE many 2-year-olds, the youngest
L member of the Candoo family loves fast
food. Unlike most 2-year-olds, her parents
earn money whenever she eats it. For over half
her life, she has been delighting her family’s
370,000 fans by eating in front of a camera.
More than 4 million people have watched a
video of her enjoying chicken nuggets and
fries, while nearly 3 million have viewed her
6-year-old brother devouring a burger.
The Candoos are a family of YouTubers.
Parents Katherine and Andrew broadcast
themselves and their five children eating
fried chicken, tacos, burgers, instant noodles
and pizza on their channel Eating with the
Candoos. The US family, and others like them,
earn money from adverts that play before
their videos and take direct sponsorship from
companies, most recently a video for food
subscription service HelloFresh. Overall, it is
pretty simple: they eat, they film themselves,
they make money. But why are their videos
so popular? And is there a physical and
psychological toll on their children?
Originating in South Korea in 2009,
a mukbang – Korean for “eating broadcast” –
is a video of someone eating large quantities
of food. Its pioneers were adults. By 2015, some
of the most popular South Korean mukbang
creators were reported to earn up to $10,000 a