Why You Don’t Need to be Full-Time on YouTube (2)

Becoming a multilingual Global YouTuber

adoba: Are you sure you are doing YouTube lightly? You have a lot of global subscribers! I was amazed when I first saw your comment section.

Choively: I can’t really tell you that I got global subscribers with a clear objective. When I first started YouTube, a lot of foreign viewers requested subtitles. My first thought was to start with English. I was using Google Translate back then, and I was embarrassed because of a crucial translator error that slipped through me. After the incident, I entrusted the translation/substitles to a professional company. In addition to English, I received a few requests from Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Indonesian fans, so I added those subtitles accordingly. More people than I expected started watching my videos since then.

adoba: I don’t think I have seen many other content creators who have subtitles in six different languages.

Choively: Well, I would be lying if I tell you it doesn’t come with any problems. There are financial issues. There are a lot of videos where the cost of subtitles exceeded the ad revenue.

adoba: Then why do you dedicate yourself so much to subtitles?

Choively: I couldn’t immerse myself into foreign videos if there were no subtitles. I started paying attention to subtitles because I thought that my overseas viewers could feel the same way.

There is a foreign creator that I watch all the time, and his videos always come with Korean subtitles. But one day, a video was uploaded without them. I couldn’t enjoy the video because I was unable to figure out what he was talking about. Then, I realized how important and influential subtitles are to viewers. In the same context, although Google Translate can convey the approximate meaning, I thought that high-quality subtitles were necessary to make my viewers truly enjoy my content.