Not content with being the biggest YouTuber of all time, MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has taken China by storm. YouTube isn’t allowed in the country, but that isn’t stopping MrBeast.
He recently joined the Republic’s video-sharing platform, BiliBili, and in his first video to Chinese viewers, Donaldson introduced himself and encouraged viewers to “subscribe for a dumpling.”
Within hours of posting the video, it amassed more than three million views and became the number one trending video on BiliBili. This suggests that Donaldson might already be well-known in the country. While the use of platforms like YouTube and TikTok is prohibited in China, users can get around this ban with the use of VPNs.
Donaldson’s bid to the Chinese fanbase is something he’s doing with Eyal Baumel, an expert in content globalization.
“I’ve been making videos my entire life, and now we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on content,” Donaldson said in a statement obtained by Tubefilter.
“The crazy part is that none of my content is currently in China, so I’m really excited to bring this over there. An average video for us right now is getting 200 million views in other languages because the content we create is content that anyone, no matter where you are, no matter what your culture is, you can enjoy.”
Now that MrBeast has made the pivot to BiliBili, let’s hope this emboldens other creators to do the same.
This isn’t the first time Donaldson has experimented with other platforms. After much public begging from Elon Musk, he tested out X’s monetization features, although some viewers are unsure that the experiment was entirely fair.
