DIY is a new trend sweeping across YouTube

“Do It Yourself” is becoming preval‎ent as YouTube has become part of life these days. As many how-to videos give kind instructions to viewers and interact real-time, DIY has risen as a new trend. An increasing number of creators provide their subscribers with more sophisticated information than simple woodwork and interior design.

Jeon Chan-su, 38, has engaged in interior design for 10 years or so. Two years ago, he opened his own channel “Polar Bear” on YouTube for a simple and clear reason. “I have been asked similar questions by my friends as I do interior design work,” Jeon said. “I thought it would be better to share videos regarding their queries than bothering to answer to them.”

The Polar Bear channel shares with around 150,000 subscribers various kinds of DIY content such as bed framing and shelves making. A 21-minute-long video regarding bed framing deals with how to cut wood and assembly a bed frame 1,100mm long and 2,100mm wide. Subscribers like video content of everyday fixing jobs as well. The most popular video on Jeon’s channel, with around 1.02 million views recorded, deals with how to fix kitchen sink doors in different heights. Jeon pays special care to instructions so that viewers can find it easy to follow his tips. He used to give verbal explanations at first, but he has recently taken advantage of 3D graphic programs. “I add video clips to show oft-made mistakes to make content fun and attract attention,” he said.

“Mangosa” is another popular DIY channel, which is run by Lee Hyo-sung. Working in interior design, the 39-year-old creator decided to produce YouTube video content rather than publishing a book for the sake of effective communication. The channel mainly deals with painting work, such as showing how to paint old front doors. “Four out of five subscribers are men in their 30s to 50s,” Lee said. As DIY content channels are searched not based on preference to certain channels but based on search words, the number of subscribers is rather small compared to their view counts.

A camping car-making video has recently gone viral as well. A video posted by a brother and a sister, who are college students, on the “Vanlife Korea Soohyang” YouTube channel has garnered 1.07 million views where they remodel a 12-person van into a mini camping vehicle. The 10-minute-long video portrays seven months of converting the van by tearing parts off and installing beds, a ventilator and a kitchen sink. Their channel provides watchers with various kinds of content such as how to get a camping car with 1.5 million won and how a woman build a van by herself.

There is a lot of content regarding DIYed PCs. Jeong Yoon-won, 33, was able to assemble a PC while watching a video clip on the “SIMP TEAM” channel, which has over 880,000 views. “The video content was easy to understand given that it is hard to even distinguish parts written in text and images,” Jeong said. He put together parts for a PC in five to six hours while repeating the 20-minute video several times, which saved him about 300,000 won when compared to buying a ready-made PC.

“An increasing number of creators are sharing their tips and know-how as it has become easier to have access to information on video-sharing platform YouTube,” said Ji Sang-eun, a manager of YouTube Partnerships Team at Google Korea.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com