Kidfluencers in Belgium

Kidfluencers are hard to find in Belgium. If you look up kidfluencers, you find all kinds of lists with rankings of famous YouTubers or Instagrammers. But none of them will be from Belgium. Most of them are from America or Asia. Hard to find doesn’t mean non-existing. Luckily, we have Adam, a little boy who lives in Wallonia with a passion for acting and toys.

Adam’s channel is called Littleboy Adam. He and his sister are the stars of the channel. Adam has 1.4 million subscribers and more than 213 million views. His most popular video has 27 million views. Not that bad for kidfluencer from Belgium. Adam loves to dress up like spiderman for his videos and to make sketches with his sister. These siblings also make a lot of videos about toys. In total, they have uploaded around 40 videos. So, when you know YouTube pays 1.000 euros per 500.000 views, we can conclude the family has made quite some money from YouTube.

In Belgium, there aren’t many influencers on YouTube. If you look up Belgian YouTubers, you will always find the same names: Acid and Céline & Michiel. It almost seems like we’re not ready for it yet. Instagram, on the other hand, is full of influencers. Is it maybe because making a career out of YouTube is very difficult in Belgium? It is much easier to become a kidfluencer when your parents are already in the business? For example, Rae Morris started TikTok videos due to his father, Hannes Coudenys. Hannes began to making videos after he adopted Rae. Kids who become influencers by themselves are scarce in Belgium. The famous influencers in our country are almost all minors. In Belgium, companies are very careful with paying kids to promote their products. Could this be one of the reasons why there are so few kidfluencers? Is the only reason why parents make a channel for their kids is to earn money?

In other countries, kidfluencers are a big hit, and companies have noticed this. Kidfluencers are more relatable for kids than traditional celebrities. According to Perse and Rubin, viewers “feel that they know and understand influencers in the same intimate way they know and understand flesh and blood friends.” We are social creatures and have the instinct to copy behaviours and beliefs of people we like. Maybe it is time for Belgium to hop on the trend.