Top 15 digital influencers from Moldova
Influencers. Who are they? According to some google searches, an influencer is a person who has the power to influence many people both through traditional and social media. If you have a larger group of followers you are already an influencer, all you need is an above-average impact on a specific niche to have the power to promote any kind of brands, sometimes opinions and ideas.
The future is, obviously digital. Let’s see what the future holds for us. Running a digital agency and being involved in a large network of digital communication specialists we’ve been analyzing the top digital figures that have the power to start a sort of digital movement. I have selected the top 15 digital influencers from Moldova.
Xenia Deli / Instagram: 612K followers
The most famous Moldovan model based in Los Angeles, California. She has been featured on several fashion magazine covers, including Elle, FMD Magazine and Sports Illustrated of South Africa. She also starred in music videos, including “Thinking About You” and Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean” in 2015. I know what you are thinking right now, but don’t. She just got married and looks happier than ever in her Instagram pictures with her beloved, very rich husband.
Carla’s Dreams / Youtube: 450K
The ”faceless” Moldovan band that has conquered Romania, russian-speaking countries and starts to get on the English-Speaking World. Their music videos got 180 million views on YouTube. WOP WOP #EROINA is the most famous song.
Andrew Rayel / Facebook: 750K fans
Andrew is in the top 100DJs of 2016. He is a partner of Armada Music Label, co-founded by Armin van Buuren. Rayel’s tracks are frequently played by influential DJs and producers around the world, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Markus Schulz, Dash Berlin, Bobina and Roger Shah.
Doina Ciobanu / Instagram: 156K followers
Started as a fashion blogger, now a popular model of Moldovan origin currently working for Next Models Company. Curious fact - one of the very few models who has a degree in political science and history. Maybe a future member of the moldovan parliament?
Tipicinii Stas / YouTube: 300K
Stas Oxanii is the most popular Moldovan youtuber in the Russian speaking countries. He has several awards, including world title in acting in Hollywood after he was accidentally spotted on Youtube and invited to LA. He has a selfie with Ryan Reynolds as well.
ilie’s vlogs / Youtube: 745k subscribers
A charismatic 23 years old vlogger with more than 700K Youtube subscribers. Kids, teenagers, as well as twenty somethings regularly watch his YouTube videos and follow him on the social media. His status was recently confirmed after a collaboration with Orange for whom he starred as a main character in their latest commercial.
Renato Usatii / Facebook: 71K fans
A very unusual and controversial politician with a strong social media presence. His videos include conversations with celebrities like Steven Seagal just after a few days after the actor visited the Belarusian president. Renato is sharing his political views and future plans of his party. He also invested heavily in digital advertising to raise his digital profile.
Maia Sandu / 54K Facebook fans
Maia Sandu is the fastest growing political figure online in terms of organic growth and reach. At the time when other politicians invested in traditional and social media, people liked her page and shared her statements just because most of them sees her as their only hope for a better future in Moldova.
Natalia Morari / Facebook: 40K followers
Natalia is the most influential Moldovan journalist on social media. Her posts get hundreds of comments and thousands of shares. She also opened a popular restaurant in Chisinau called “Propaganda”. Isn‘t it ironic for a political TV-show moderator?
Nata Albot / Facebook: 43K likes
Nata Albot is a blogger, TV producer, journalist and event manager. She has had several popular shows on radio and television. Now she is organizing some of the most popular festivals in Moldova: “Lavender Fest”, “Ia Mania” and “Mai Dulce”.
Andrei Bolocan / Facebook: 41K likes
Comedian and former TV presenter based in Montreal, Canada. Funny thing: Nata Albot’s husband. What an influential family we got here! He has no specific genre of comedy, but he often touches political and social issues concerning Moldova in his video blog called “Lumina” (The light).
The Duck Show / YouTube: 33K subscribers
One of the first Youtube projects from Moldova. He is famous for the video about local weddings that went viral, but besides all the funny stories, he is analyzing social and political stories and he has a mission to inform and give a different perspective on news for people who don’t have time to watch propaganda on TV.
Alexandr Spatari / Instagram: 57K followers
Alexander is a contributing photographer for Getty Images. He shares his travel photos with his audience on Instagram and Facebook.
Iurii Belegurschii / Facebook: 1.2 million likes
Iurie is a landscape photographer based in Reykjavik who captures the best moments of nature in Iceland and shares them with more than 1 million fans on the social media. His pictures are picked up by newspapers such as The Independent, The Telegraph or The Huffington Post.
Dan Balan / Facebook 742k likes
Don’t forget about one of the first icons that made Moldova famous in the entire world. The former member of O-Zone band that created the most popular song ever “Numa numa song”. How influential is he? Forget the facebook likes, a couple of years ago his father was named head of Moldovan secret service. No more comments.
To sum it up. We have a few video-bloggers, beautiful girls, artists, media people, photographers and politicians in this improvised top. If we look in the TIME 100 most influential people in the world, we can find leaders and iconic figures as well. What our country really lacks and this should be the main challenge to address is raising and recognizing a generation of pioneers and business titans from Moldova. And I think we can do it.
Artur Gurau / CEO Granat digital agency / Vice-President Digicomnet / Founder of Rockit Conference.
