[English] Oz Queen of YouTube

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

How Natalie became Australia's queen of YouTube

Natalie Tran, 22, is the most subscribed YouTube user in Australia and 
ranks 37th in the world.  (By Asher Moses, February 4, 2009 - 12:47PM)

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/web/how-natalie-became-
australias-queen-of-youtube/2009/02/04/1233423281416.html


>From her parents' home in western Sydney, Natalie Tran, Australia's queen 
of YouTube, has proven time and again that titillation is not a 
prerequisite to internet fame.

With more than 150,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel, Tran, 22, is 
easily the most subscribed YouTube user in Australia, while globally she 
ranks 37th.

http://www.youtube.com/user/communitychannel

The 118 videos she's created over two years have amassed 64 million 
views, making her also the most viewed Australian YouTube user of all 
time - more popular on the site than even AC/DC, whose videos have 
attracted 53 million views.

But while some female web stars such as Obama Girl have used their 
sexuality to amass scores of drooling fanboys, Tran has eschewed 
titillation in favour of comedic skits about her everyday life.

"I think that to have longevity on these kind of websites you need to 
offer something different ... there's plenty of [sexual] material on the 
internet that would provide that kind of entertainment already," she said.

For instance, her most recent skit riffs on the poor quality voice 
recognition services many companies use to answer their phones and 
provides funny tips on how to bypass them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZT3ykAkLGg&feature=channel_page

In another, Tran talks about the irrational fears that people have, such 
as: "When I kill an insect I'm really conscious that there's another one 
in the room that's probably seen that massacre go down and it's probably 
going to try and find me as well as my family."

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=f3GwJXfefck&feature=channel_page

The comedic value is in Tran's satirical re-enactments of the situations 
she is talking about and the fact that she plays all of the characters.

Tran said the skits were all based on things that happened in her 
day, "just a little bit exaggerated for comedy purposes".

"They're not huge deep and meaningful videos, they're just short snippets 
that are meant to be a little bit of fun in somebody's lunch break ... 
the world wouldn't be a worse place without them," she said.

Tran publishes a new video every two to three days, each taking about 
four hours to make, including writing, filming, editing and uploading.

Outside of that she said she spends an hour at night replying to the 
hundreds of messages she receives each day from fans.

Also unlike many internet celebrities, Tran has never courted fame, 
regularly turning down TV shows and journalists who are more interested 
in poking fun at the whacky world of YouTube than seriously examining its 
place in the new digital media world.

She works in retail on and off while studying digital media at the 
University of NSW, but says most of her classmates don't know of her 
YouTube fame.

Tran said she had been approached by numerous companies seeking to 
sponsor her videos or pay for an endorsement but she decided against 
heading down that path, fearful it would put viewers offside.

"It [sponsorship money] is very tempting but it's not really what I'm 
looking for - I've spent a long time creating something and I don't want 
to give that up," she said.

While she earns a modest income from YouTube's Partner Program - which 
gives a small percentage of ad revenue to the site's most popular users - 
Tran said money and fame did not concern her.

She was more interested in practically applying her digital media studies 
to learn "the science behind" making content that builds and sustains 
audiences online.

"I don't think internet fame holds very much in the real world," she said.
--

Cheers,
Stephen


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