Staring at the camera all it takes for Vietnamese TikToker to get millions of views

While thousands of aspiring influencers are trying to figure out the art of going viral, a Vietnamese man didn’t have to do much to garner millions of views on his TikTok account. 

And we mean quite literally — Anh Tran Tan’s shtick involves staring into the lens of his smartphone and nothing else. 

He could be lying down or sitting up, but the same routine persists: look straight into the camera while a song or sound effect plays on his TikTok app. 

For someone who posted his first video only on Sept 17, getting over 326,000 followers and 4.8 million likes on his content so far ain’t bad at all. 

@anhtrantan

 

♬ Quằng Lắm Em Ơi - Lê Nguyễn Hữu Huy ✅

@anhtrantan

 

♬ Đêm Trung Thu - Lê Bống

Heck, he doesn’t even need proper lighting on his videos to go viral — some clips are so dark that you can barely see him. Still, he manages to collect at least 635,000 views on each of them. 

@anhtrantan

 

♬ nhạc nền - Thiện Nhân

Recently, the TikToker has been starting to experiment a little with his content by posting videos of other people. The break from his gimmick didn’t seem to have made much of a dent in his view count, netting over a million views each easily enough. 

@anhtrantan

 

♬ nhạc nền - ÚT MAI(BÉ HEO) - ÚT MAI (BÉ HEO)✅

It’s such a successful recipe for virality that other TikTokers — from Thailand to South Korea — are replicating his style. 

@tao_stp

ขอสักล้านวิวได้ป่าวครับ? ##taostp

♬ Nhìn màn hình đi nào - ☘️Bé Là Wolf ??✔️

@hyunnoir

Xin chào ?? ??

♬ Nhìn màn hình đi nào - ☘️Bé Là Wolf ??✔️

Perhaps in this era of social distancing, folks just want someone to look straight into their souls.

Earlier this year, an Indonesian YouTuber managed to score four million views on a video of himself staring into nothing for two straight hours. 

ilyas@asiaone.com