台灣政府給外國YOUTUBER多少錢？Do the Taiwanese Government Pay Youtubers to Promote Taiwan?

In today's video we are going to be talking about do the Taiwanese government pay YouTubers to promote the country, how much they get paid, whether it's right or wrong, and whether we have been paid. But first let's get to some introductions. My name is Alan, this is my life in Taiwan. My name is Krazy, this is my life in Taiwan. And to introduce the location we are here at Taichung City Hall because I thought it's an appropriate location to discuss government paying YouTubers to promote the country. Shall we walk? Let's walk. Okay, so in this video there's a few key points that I want to hit. We're going to just talk freely and this is very much like one of our podcasts. Yeah, kind of like videos we used to do back in the day. Yeah, exactly. And I know I've made a lot of overly produced videos recently that both of us have actually, but this one's going to be a much more simple walk and talk. Speaking of podcasts, Alan. We do have a podcast. We sure do. With 65 fantastic episodes for them to binge watch if they go to the link in the description down below. Yeah, you remember to put those. So yeah, government's paying YouTubers to make videos promoting the country. Yeah. It definitely happens in Taiwan, right? 100%. I'm aware of a few myself. Yeah, and it's not just foreign YouTubers that do it. It's Taiwanese YouTubers, foreign YouTubers alike. So do you think it's a good thing for Taiwan? I think it is. Yeah, it just really depends on what exactly it is that they're promoting. Yeah. But I think generally speaking Taiwan could use a big boost in their international presence and get more eyes on the country because it has a runoff effect of all the other things they're trying to accomplish here with just more awareness of what's going on in Taiwan. And that's one thing I wanted to talk about, which is the targeted audience of these videos, these tourism videos promoted by the government. Who are they actually targeting, do you think? Well, I think a lot of the videos are tourism videos. And since the pandemic, Taiwan has seen a massive boost in domestic tourists. So a lot of the videos, at least that I'm aware of, are targeting Taiwanese people to try and get them to explore their own country a little bit. Yeah, I think that's the difference between what my viewers think and what the government think when they recruit YouTubers to do this. The people who watch the videos think, oh, this is great that the world is seeing Taiwan through these YouTubers' videos. But I think that the marketing people within the tourist departments of the government, they know who they're promoting to, which is to get Taiwanese people to go to these different events or locations that they've invested money in building up. A hundred percent. I mean, especially a lot of the, you know, Taiwan has an aging population. A lot of them are retired. And so a lot of them do the whole 上次睡觉下次尿尿 type thing. And this is going to sound harsh, but I've said it in my videos before. It's just not really interesting to the international audience. Taiwan isn't set up for that kind of tourism. They're going to lose out every single time to other countries around Asia. Shall we discuss whether or not we've filmed these tourist government videos before? How many have we done? What's the process for it? Do you think we're going to get in trouble if we discuss that? I don't think we'll get in trouble for it. I think that the main issue here is that a lot of people, when they're talking about Taiwan, will immediately compare it to China because that's just the way it is. And I think that when you think about the government hiring YouTubers to promote the country, it happens all over the world. But when you're comparing it to China, then automatically it's labeled as propaganda. So when you hear the government hiring YouTubers to promote Taiwan, it's like, is that considered propaganda? Or is it considered tourism? Where's the line there, you know? Well, I think the line is very clearly with regards to the fact that every time a local tourist government hires me for a video, I have no idea whether they're blue or green local government. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Like, I'm not promoting this party or promoting this politician, so to speak. I'm promoting the event. And usually the event will be something interesting that I would go and visit. For example, the Cherry Blossom Festival in Taipei is something that I might go and take photos for Instagram for. Okay. You see that? You're going to disagree. I don't. So I think we've already answered that other question where we have been hired by the government to go to certain things. And I think that there's an improvement there. I think there's a reason why people don't just go there and they need YouTubers to promote it. And I'm not trying to put them down, but I do think there's some questionable practices, I think, when it comes to taking the government's money to promote them. Because when I show up with my camera, it seems like someone clearly doesn't give a flying... Hootin' Annie. Yeah, Hootin' Annie. And I take a big risk when I say that, because now when people will watch me, they're going to be like, well, I'm not going to give a sponsor to this guy who's going to criticize it. But I think I want to promote Taiwan. Obviously, I want their money. That's the best. But I just wish that there was a little bit more thought processes to how the whole event would work, you know? But also what I want to say is tourist departments have a marketing budget and they don't just spend it all on YouTubers or foreign YouTubers. No, of course not. They spend it on all different types of marketing. These people are trying their best to market this event or this activity that they've been asked to promote. So YouTubers is one way to get your message out to a market. So it's a completely normal practice in my view. Yeah, 100%. And we're not hiding it. The government have a rule that at the end of every video, it has to have the government logo, the tourism department's logo with the Guangzhou in the corner. So it's never really hidden. And just to get back to the point about comparing it to China's propaganda YouTubers, those guys, that's hidden. That's like subliminal propaganda where they are 100% being paid to promote an idea, an ideology. Well, I think your point you said earlier, it really nails the hammer on the head of the whatever, is the fact that, you know, here we don't know if it's a green or a blue party or what party is actually promoting. We have no idea because it's all different. Like that party doesn't represent the nation unless, of course, they're elected. Whereas in China, if you're promoting the party, you're promoting the country and you're promoting the people because it's all one thing. That's the biggest difference. I want to promote Taiwan. I like the fact that there are things going on here that they can be proud of and I want to promote that because I support Taiwan. I'm rooting for it. I want to do my part. But I filmed a video where they were trying to promote domestic tourism and I got so many messages from Taiwanese people, local people, like, are you kidding me? Like this is what the government spends money on? Like they spent money on, not necessarily they spent money on me, what a waste of money. It was just that a lot of the things that I went to go see were Japanese and they came to the realization that Taiwan didn't really have a whole lot to offer up because they were just using Japanese things like wearing traditional clothes or going to see certain Japanese shrines and they just felt a bit cheated out of the experience, I guess. Yeah, I think that's one specific example that you're talking about but otherwise you've also been invited to do just Taiwanese things. Go to famous locations that are famous for certain things. Giant mountain of salt. Exactly. That was your first ever sponsored video. I think it was one of my first sponsored videos and I just, it was a great time. Yeah. And I don't have any shame about doing that. It's difficult to make your own money and be an entrepreneur. So I'm gonna make my money, you know, you can hate me all you want but I'm gonna make my money, you know, and I hope you make a lot of money too. It's just the way that it is. I think that there's a lot of YouTubers who are a bit shamed or a bit, you know, they hide the fact that they make money or they get sponsors but I don't buy that. I think that if someone's making money and they're doing it ethically... Ethically, yeah. Ethically is the key point. Yeah, yeah. All power to you. I don't like this whole jealousy idea of like when you see someone making money you get jealous. It's like that's not a good attitude. I think that you should applaud that and learn from that and celebrate that person. Especially with your friends, you know. Yeah. You got to be careful with the people you celebrate good news with. Yeah, that's a very, very good point. So I guess the other thing that people would be really interested to know is how much money it is. And we contractually are obliged not to disclose how much we get paid for videos. It's the only way we can make money in order to live off of it. Unlike YouTubers who are in other countries, the CPM or basically it means how much money you get per click is a lot lower in Taiwan than it is in, say, America. My ad revenue, if I was just a YouTuber with no sponsored videos, my ad revenue this month is 500 US dollars. So it's impossible for me to live off 15,000 NT a month. No, I couldn't even pay rent. Exactly, yeah. So I have to look outsource from sponsorships. I do know that some huge YouTubers in Taiwan, some Taiwanese YouTubers, they get in excess of a million NT dollars for one video. Oh yeah, 100%. We're not at that level. We are by no means millionaires, which is one of the things that worries me because I really have to work on trying to get more sponsors, which is actually one of the interesting struggles that you have as a YouTuber is how much of your content do you want to cater towards your audience, which is the people you're supposed to serve, versus how much of your content do you want to cater towards sponsors, which will actually make you dollars. But your recent video, which is doing really well, let's say it gets to 100,000 views. 100,000 views is going to bank you 300 US dollars. Yeah. Whereas if you do a promotional video for mama and papa's restaurant that want to pay you, you will earn more than that, even if you get 1,000 views. Oh, 100%, yeah. So the balance is so difficult to... Justify? Justify, yeah. Did you ever get offered money by any governments or anything? Were you at that level when you were in China? No, I had a few offers from private companies and things, like I had a buddy work for a big company. If they offered you 100,000 renminbi to make a video promoting China in a really positive light and saying that China is the best country in the world, this kind of thing, would you refuse? Yeah, I think I would have to because, you know, again, I'm on Taiwan's side here. And I'm not someone who hates China. I'm not someone... You know, I live there, I have friends there. I don't hate the place, but at the same time, I don't think that I could ethically take that money because... Yeah. It's not like I want to hurt Chinese tourism or I think that people going to China as tourists is a bad thing, but I think that, you know, abroad in Japan, made a good point about people traveling to North Korea. It's like all that money that you're spending on tourism going to North Korea is helping pay for those missiles that are flying over Japan every other month. That's true, yeah. And it's not like China's doing that. It's not like they're on North Korea's level, but it gets complicated and sticky when you start talking about that kind of thing, you know? So it's not an easy answer, but... Yeah, I would have to, I guess, say no to it. What about you? Oh, for anything that I didn't really 100% believe in, I would either have to come up with a proposal or a script or a plan that shows balance and shows reasoning. But if someone told me, say this is good, when if it's not good, then I just can't... I just wouldn't do it. So you think that people should spend their weekends going to a mushroom farm in Anto? That's the best way. It's one way to... It's one way to spend your weekend. There's just nothing for them to spend their money on I think that's interesting or exciting or would get people, especially from abroad, because, I mean, that's a big way to earn money is international tourism. And I just don't see the country being set up for that. No one is going to come from abroad to go to a mushroom farm or go pick strawberries in Miaoli or go to a salt mountain in Thailand. No one is going to do that from abroad. It doesn't make any sense. So I think there needs to be something. I don't know what, because I'm dumb, but if there could be like something local and it doesn't have to be old, it could be a new thing that's interesting that they can get people in. And I've said this in my video before, like Japan has been doing that really well since like the 70s, 80s with their anime and all that kind of stuff. Korea in the last 10, 15 years has been doing that really well. They get loads of tourists, even though those are expensive countries to go to, but people love going to them. And I think that Taiwan can do that too. And I think it should. And I think it could. And I think that would be such a win. I think that would alleviate a lot of the stresses that are on this country. I nailed that. I might keep it in. Maybe. One more question before we wrap up. Have you ever felt guilty for taking money for a product or a sponsorship? At first, when I first started taking sponsorships, I did, I felt like a bit of a sellout. I felt like I wasn't being honest with my audience. I felt like I didn't even want to take on agents because I felt it to be so illegitimate. But then once I started to increase my audience and started to respect my channel a little bit more and have a little bit more self-respect and realize that, you know, what I've built here is actually worth something and it can be a business, then I can kind of start to say, you know, I am worth this money. I think it wasn't necessarily the fact that I was taking money from the sponsors that was my issue. It was the fact that I didn't feel like I was worth it. Okay. That's very sort of introspective problem with it rather than the concept of it as a whole. Yeah. You agree with the concept of YouTubers making money, but you didn't count yourself as a YouTuber at that time. Yeah, I didn't. I was like, why are you giving me? I'm an idiot. Why are you giving me money? But yeah. The audience is like worth a lot to us. Talking of which, thank you to you guys for watching. All the way to the end of the video. You are the true OGs. What do they get for making it to the end? If they comment, I made it to the end, I will give them a heart and a special emoji for every single different person. Really? But yeah, let us know your thoughts on this topic down below. Is this news to you? Are you surprised to know that we actually make money from the government to promote tourism? Or is it something that you were fully aware of and completely accepted as part of the channel? But yeah, don't forget to go check out Prozzy's channel. There's a link in the description down below. Like, share, subscribe if you haven't already. And we'll see you next time in My Life in Taiwan. Peace. Bye-bye.