Mao Nimol has spent the last eight years working as a food content creator. Today, he has a more than 1.3 million-strong fanbase, helping to throw the spotlight on Cambodia’s food and tourism sectors.

Nimol started his career as a video producer at Koh Santepheap Daily. He quickly realised that there was a lack of content creators in the food industry in Cambodia, and decided to focus on creating videos to promote Cambodian restaurants.

Nimol, known as Eatame to his 1.3 million followers on Facebook, has been creating videos since 2016 and has found something special in his work as a content creator.

The 31-year-old hails from Battambang province. He studied computer science and started to work in the online sector. His role included cooperating with private business Amazon and Lasadar, which was owned by a Singaporean company.

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He used to be a designer offering services for online items to users. Life moved fast for him to defend himself with a regular job as a person who came from the province.

Mao Nimol, a food content creator at Eatame, in artwork. Kiripost/supplied

After working a few jobs, he went on to support video food creators at Koh Santepheap Daily. Today, he is independent within the field, even though he sometimes still supports this with his previous work at the Daily.

Why does he love being a food content creator?

Nimol believes that promoting the food industry can help to boost tourism in Cambodia. He said, “Be it in Cambodia or internationally, the food industry plays an important role in boosting the tourism industry.

“During that time, there weren't a lot of videos promoting food. I did many videos as normal with less viewers, but it didn’t stop me in this field. In 2021, my video was viewed seven million times and I was so happy with these unexpected results.”

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Videos that went viral include a post of a man who sells about 1,000 grilled ducks a day.

Now, Nimol said the income generated by his content has created a better life for him to be able to support his family and increase more products. He added that after he reached millions of views, he started to create more videos that were sponsored by businesses to promote them to the public.

These paid promotions aim to reach people who are unsure about what they like. The aim is that watching the video can help to guide them.

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Mao Nimol, a food content creator at Eatame. Kiripost/supplied

What makes Nimol’s videos popular?

Nimol's videos are not traditional food reviews. Instead, he focuses on creating videos that are visually appealing and that highlight the unique flavours of Cambodian cuisine.

He said, “People think food is delicious because of their childhood memories. In the past, non-rich kids used to eat a Cambodian cake called ah kao tnaot (palm cake), so even if the cake is not tasty, they still like the food.”

However, he noted that creating a promotional video does not always work as expected due to various reasons, such as food options, change of place and customer demands. Therefore, he prioritises customers’ experiences over restaurant owners’ demands by setting a few conditions for restaurant owners to abide by.

This includes the requirement that they are aware of any unexpected customer dissatisfaction after the promotional videos are published.

He gave an example. “When we did a video, the location of the restaurant had changed from the street to a proper building; therefore, this changed customers’ demands from not requiring a fast service to requiring a fast service.” For small restaurants, they are unable to fulfil this demand, he added.

In this case, customers will be upset with both the restaurant owners and video producers, he added. “So, we decided not to produce a promotional video about them if the requirement is not met,” Nimol said.

Moreover, he also informs restaurant owners to be aware of the unexpected changes of customers’ preference after they visit new restaurants.

He said, “When restaurant owners often first start their business, they sell food on the streets. Thus, there are not many foods on the menu. However, by the time we produce the video, more and better foods are added to the menu. For some customers, they like the newly-added foods better.”

Changes Nimol wants to see through his videos

Beside his passion to help Cambodian restaurants thrive, Nimol believes that food is a powerful way to showcase local culture by promoting the country’s national food ‘prahok’.

He said, “I want more foreigners to taste Cambodian prahok, because, as of now, they tend to not like the food.” However, to achieve this goal, he believes that cooperation among other Cambodian content creators is key.

“I alone can not come up with ideas to attract foreigners to taste prahok, we need many other content creators to do so,” he added.

Since many of them are new to producing videos promoting local cuisine, Nimol believes that it will be a challenge for them to cooperate. He said, “Many of them are still in the learning process of producing videos; therefore, they do not build up their own uniqueness for Cambodian foods. This makes cooperation among content creators difficult to boost the whole Cambodian food industry.”

Through his promotional videos, Nimol also creates attractive graphics to catch the attention of foreigners, replicating the success of content creators in Thailand.

Furthermore, through the videos he makes, he wants to encourage food sellers to create unique foods rather than copying from one another. “Other people who sell similar foods can derive inspiration from the food owner in my videos to create new and unique foods, rather than completely copying one another.”

Mao Nimol, a food content creator at Eatame. Kiripost/supplied

He is also committed to helping Cambodian children and uses his platform to raise awareness about deforestation at Oral Mountain in Kampong Speu province. He said, “I want the public to care more about children in the Oral Mountain areas because people usually cut down trees for work.”

When Nimol asked youngsters living in the area what they want to do in the future, they said that they want to follow their parents. “We want children in the area to realise that there are options other than cutting down for a living,” he added.

Nimol said that changing the mindset of the young is essential to prevent deforestation by convincing them that there are better jobs to take up rather than cutting down trees. For older people, it is hard to change their mindset, he added.

Society need unity

Nimol urged people to participate with activities that aid society, especially education and the environment. Beside food promotion, he has also promoted and called for support for orphanages, offering them motivation and giving supplies after receiving donations from the public.

At the same time, Nimol has created a campaign to support Ben Davis' mission to save Cambodian forests, including vulnerable wildlife. Nimol collected more than $50,000 to facilitate the construction of canals to prevent forest fires.

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