Social eating trend reaches Twitch, streaming site Amazon paid US$1b for
South Korea’s 'mok bang' phenomenon, where people stream themselves eating for others’ viewing pleasure, is taking off in the US and Europe, and video-game-streaming site Twitch is getting in on the action
Twitch, the video game-streaming site Amazon bought for roughly US$1 billion, has recently launched a new channel called “Social Eating” – a place where people can watch others eat food live.
If you think that sounds bizarre, you’re not alone. Even Twitch chief executive Emmett Shear admits he’s not a big “social eating viewer”.
But there’s a clear reason he’s doing it.
For one, social eating is a real thing that’s huge in South Korea. Called “mok bang” in Korean, social eating has a massive following that’s allowing some people to make thousands of dollars every night by simply live-streaming themselves eat food.
And with Twitch growing in South Korea, Shear says he’s seen strong demand for a separate social eating channel. Now the popularity is going beyond the country, with users from the US and Europe starting to embrace it as well.