Modern MBA

The Booming Business of Eating Food Online (2025x7)

Air date: Jun 22, 2025

Food content dominates every online platform. It’s algorithm-friendly, advertiser-safe, and universally relatable, making it one of the easiest ways to build an audience—but also one of the hardest to stand out in. These days, it’s no longer the celebrity chefs, cooking competitions, and exotic food travel shows that get the most views, but mukbangs; which roughly translates to ‘eating broadcasts’ in Korean. What started as a small niche years ago where people posted videos of themselves binging extreme portions, now serves as an umbrella term for any form of eating content. The appeal of mukbangs lies in the consumption, not the cooking or critique. Mukbangers speak directly to the camera—or not at all—reacting in real time, chowing down in their cars or homes. Like influencers, they invite viewers into a casual, parasocial relationship. Some take just a few bites, others eat everything, but most feature abnormally large portions.