How Covid-19 changed motovlogging
Oct 20, 2020 – minute read
While the coronavirus has restricted our ability to do many things, one thing it hasn’t clamped down is motovlogging.
For some creators, motovlogging is a cinematic opportunity to document scenic bike routes, chance encounters, traffic accidents and more. These videos use action cameras mounted to the motovloggers’ helmets, which give viewers a firsthand account of the unfolding action. For viewers, these videos offer a sense of calm, surprise and even joy as they experienced the goodwill of motorcyclists helping strangers on the side of the road. This type of free-roaming, exploratory content has remained popular during the pandemic.
But now with travel restrictions in place, motovloggers are taking a slightly different approach to their productions and focusing on local, less-frequented routes. In Southeast Asia, where motorcycles are a popular form of transportation — delivery routes and joy rides through suburban neighborhoods where there’s less traffic — are seeing an uptick in viewership. So it’s no surprise that 15 out of the top 20 most-viewed motovlogs are from Indonesia. And the most-viewed video in the country, which has over 9.5 million views, is NIAT NOLONG MALAH DI KASIH INI || ENDINGNYA BIKIN GREGET || MOTOVLOG INDONESIA (translation: INTENTION IS TO HELP EVEN IN LOVE || FUSSY ENDING || MOTOVLOG INDONESIA) from Indonesian creator Wiebowo Wb.
Overall, views of videos with variations of “motovlog” in the title have received more than 600 million views in 2020*, proving that motovlog creators can still find mobility and ways to entertain viewers, despite the global dropoff in travel.
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*YouTube data, global, Jan-Sep 2020. Videos with “motovlog” or “moto vlog” in the title