Influencer Jasontheween parlays goofy antics into R50-million-a-year job

Jason Nguyen, the Twitch personality known as Jasontheween, wanted everyone to see his alien makeover - especially the other influencers living with him in a multi-million Los Angeles mansion. A team of special-effects artists had painted him green and glued antennae to his head so he could troll his group of celebrity housemates, along with 30 000 live viewers.

Nguyen went door-to-door in the house, broadcasting the influencers' confused and bewildered reactions. After exhausting that, he returned to his room, where he FaceTimed even more e-celebrities for their take on his alien schtick.

“Slowly but surely, I will take over this planet,” he said.

Nguyen is a new breakout star on Twitch, the livestreaming platform owned by Amazon.com Inc. In October, 327 000 people bought R80-a-month subscriptions to his channel, a sum he splits with the service. Those subscriptions helped the 21-year-old earn R50 million last year.

To get famous today, influencers need to be ubiquitous: posting on every platform, all the time and, more importantly, appearing alongside other social-media personalities. Nguyen's path to online stardom is the result of savvy networking, and turning those cross-over moments into viral clips.

“Jason is a fun person and brings the fun out in other people,” said Dan Clancy, chief executive officer of Twitch. He “has been very smart about creating moments that are fun on Twitch, but then spread through social media.”

Last month, Nguyen and Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson dug into Taco Bell bowls in the back of a Maybach as the YouTube star pitched his various businesses to Nguyen's audience.

Nguyen's latest venture is to test his star power solo. On February 15 he will maroon himself on a remote Central American island to survive alone for seven days. He’s spending six figures out of his own pocket to make it happen and is looking for a sponsor - a stunt that, he believes, should cement his status as online royalty.

"I'm very scared,” he told fans online. “I don't even know how to even change my own tire."

Nguyen’s attraction as an entertainer comes from his willingness to play the foil, and often, look a little silly. Early on, he’d find female gamers online and broadcast their reactions to his awkward flirting. Over time, Nguyen appeared in more and more livestreams to act as a friendly, but naïve jester type. Alongside other influencers, he’ll stream himself struggling with normal tasks, like cooking salmon or starting a campfire.

“For the most part, people know that I’m playing dumb,” he said in a December interview at the house. “Sometimes I actually am just dumb. But I don’t really care what people think about me, as long as I’m making them laugh.”

Over Christmas, the community Nguyen had hitched his career to essentially collapsed. Influencers making up FaZe Clan, a gaming and esports group of young men famous on social media, couldn’t come to an agreement with business’ new owner, Matt Kalish, a co-founder of DraftKings Inc. The members broke with FaZe and went independent.

“It was a buildup of differences and disagreements,” Nguyen said in a later interview. “It was definitely sad.”

Nguyen, it turned out, had enough momentum without FaZe. Over the past month, he has added more than 57 000 followers on Twitch, bringing his total to 2 million. He’s still driving a multi-million dollar Audi RS 7 and living in the FaZe mansion - paying the R280 000 a month rent himself.

Nguyen got his start on social media with TikTok. A child of Vietnamese immigrants, he was taught about the importance of education at an early age, even being forced to go to school when he was ill. He won spelling bees and thrived in academics. Then Covid hit and Nguyen started making short clips.

“I told my friend that I’d try to get a viral TikTok before we were back in school,” he said. While his parents envisioned him becoming a doctor, Nguyen’s online career took off when he was early into college.

He posted hard-to-watch videos - asking for “cuddle wuddles” or pretending to choke on the purple McDonald’s Grimace shake. Finally, one TikTok hit. Nguyen was on a basketball court, above a caption that read, “What Asian kids hear at the free throw line.” He listed famous Asian athletes, like Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming. The account got banned, he said, after the video hit 40 million views.

“My niche was doing cringy sh-t on the internet,” he said.

To build his popularity, Nguyen “farmed” clips from dramatic moments he engineered with fellow online personalities. Some went viral on short-form video apps, directing viewers back to his Twitch channel, where he makes the bulk of his income.

Two years ago, one of Nguyen’s more-charming clips – called a rizz compilation, short for charisma – landed in the YouTube Shorts feed of former United Talent Agency executive Joseph Valles. Nguyen reminded Valles of Twitch star Kai Cenat, who recently paused his regular streaming so that he could launch a fashion brand.

“There hasn’t ever been someone in the Asian community doing what some of these bigger streamers were doing,” said Valles, who is now Nguyen’s manager. “He understands how the content game works.”