Mok Bang: Korea Is Obsessed With Watching Women Eat Via Live Stream Videos

Kotaku has finally shined the light on the most recent internet trend that demands your immediate attention. No, it’s not a beauty trend or anything to do with K-Pop. In fact, it resonates through one universal language – food. A lot of food.

Mok bang is a combination of Korean words for “eating” and “broadcast”, and it all started with young South Koreans who streamed themselves live while having a feast for dinner. It is believed that the idea began when Koreans praised actors like Jung Woo Ha for their ability to eat deliciously in television dramas.

Mok bang was made popular through a peer-to-peer video network in South Korea called Afreeca TV. Broadcasters can actually earn money through a virtual currency called Star Balloons, and they’re worth approximately between US$1 to US$50.

The Diva is said to be the most popular broadcaster on Afreeca TV. A consulting agent by profession, The Diva makes her extra buck by eating a lot and streaming it between 8pm and 9pm.

The Diva says she started doing it because she was bored and need a new hobby. This new hobby requires eating for about two hours each night (but how does she not get fat)! The Diva spends about US$3000 a month on her food, but earns it all back with her live streams on Afreeca TV.

According to Kotaku:

“Sometimes in an evening, The Diva will scarf down two medium pizzas. Other nights, it’s thirty fried eggs and a box of crab legs or five packets of instant noodles. Then, there was the night she ate twelve beef patties, twelve fried eggs, three servings of spicy pork kimchi soup and a salad.”

The folks over in East Asia sure do have weird preferences…from turning themselves into dolls, under-eye bag surgery to their well-known obsession about cosmetic surgery.

If you’re not keen on watching people eat, here’s one video that might actually change your mind about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J9X9VvYQXU

[Source]