Far Away Places

One YouTube channel helps a South Asian village

SUNDAY STORY

How a “YouTube Village” Grew in Bangladesh 

AroundMeBD

Google “Shimulia, Bangladesh” and the search engine can’t pull up more than 71 results. It’s a small village in Southeast Asia but one creator has put it on the map. 

Liton Ali Khan started AroundMeBD, a YouTube channel that documents rural cooking practices in his home village. The videos show a community kitchen in Shimulia preparing huge amounts of food, including a 185-pound vanilla cake, 800 tandoori rotis, and a 650-pound water buffalo to feed the 4,000+ villagers. Since starting the channel five years ago, it has amassed over 4 million subscribers. 

Khan lives in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, where he owns an internet cafe. He runs the channel with his uncle Delwar Hosseein who lives in Shimulia and travels more than six hours from the village to the internet cafe to transfer video from a memory card to a computer for editing and uploading. They upload around eight times a month, and have garnered over 1.3 billion views.

Shimulia has earned the nickname “YouTube Village” as the channel employs 50 villagers, 17 of whom are women who are featured in and run the show. Staff plan the shoots and manage the crowds that come to eat as well as delegate responsibility. One chef, 70-year-old Jobeda Khatun, has been featured in over 100 of the channel’s videos.

She told the journalism nonprofit Rest of World that her earnings from the channel help her afford the medicine for her diabetes and feed her family. The channel also gives the opportunity for villagers to eat foods that would normally be hard to afford, like swordfish and buffalo tongue. 

Revenue has gone toward medical expenses for the village’s elderly, rehousing those whose homes were lost in a fire, and building a water slide and park.

Our Take

YouTube channels can be economic drivers not just for individual creators but in some cases a whole community. And when you build an audience on the world stage, it drives awareness that can turn an unknown village into a must-see destination. 

Sponsored by ConvertKit

Ownership Matters

When you press publish on YouTube or TikTok, you’re relying on that platform to deliver your content to your audience. You don’t have ownership over that relationship.

That’s why more and more creators are building email lists and newsletters (like this one). When someone opts into receiving your emails, you have a direct line of communication with them. There are tons of email platforms out there but ConvertKit is built for creators, by creators.

As the hub for creator business, ConvertKit is centered around your most important asset — your audience. They build simple but powerful tools that help you learn about, connect with and sell to your audience with ease.

Build a platform that you can own — get started on ConvertKit.

🤝 CREATOR SUPPORT

Publish Press readers share a problem they're facing and creators and Colin & Samir respond with their advice.

Q: I’m thinking about launching a merch brand. What are some best practices for creators to follow? 

–K. Heckel 

A: We think the best creator merch meets three criteria: 

It’s scalable—the brand can exist and appeal to consumers outside of the creator’s audience.

It’s authentic—the merch aligns with the creator’s content and value prop. David Dobrik launching perfume? Not it. 🙅‍♂️

It’s shareable—some element to the product or brand makes it inherently shareable through social media or word-of-mouth.

For examples of good execution, check out Binging With Babish cookware, Chamberlain Coffee, and Amanda Rach Lee stationery, as well as our series of merch winners and losers—there’s a new installment coming out this week.

–Colin & Samir

Facing a creator problem you want help with? Share it here→

🔥 PRESS WORTHY

  • Airrack is hiring an editor.

  • Party Shirt starts a podcast.

  • YouTube is leaning into podcasts.

  • Tips for making an income with under 1,000 subscribers.

  • TikTok trainspotter Francis Bourgeois does the most unexpected collabs.

  • Share your thoughts on the creator experience and enter to win Airpods Pro.*

*This is sponsored advertising content.

Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here. 

Want to advertise in The Publish Press? Go here.

Have an idea or creator to share? Submit here.