With Asian-American social media stars on the rise throughout the country, Jun Yang, known by his famed internet alias “Jefo”, is breaking through into the mainstream. With a humble upbringing and a childhood filled with laughs, Jefo is turning into the entertainer of the masses he always dreamed of being.
Like many of the youth in America, Jefo attended went down a classic scholastic path, finishing high school and attending college. Jefo, however, was not like most. Classroom and lecture halls were not his environment, and he would crave to entertain the entire while.
Despite not attending college, Jefo immediately busied himself with the objective to make others life through his inherent comedic ability. Initially, it took the comedian a little while to hit the ground running; he often had to spend months at a time on the couches of friends and other acquaintances.
Jefo was not, however, one to give up on his dreams. No matter his personal struggle, he still dreamed of making people laugh, bringing others happiness with his entertaining personality and quirky actions.
Desperate yet enterprising, Jefo took his first steps towards internet fame. He started filming his interactions on the streets. These “public challenges”, videos of strangers on the street participating with Jefo in his dance moves and pickup lines, soon propelled him onto the Youtube Trending page, bringing traction to his channel called “Jefo”.
With each video produced, like the “Insane Wheel Spin Challenge”, and “Best pickup lines EVER” videos, Jefo saw his subscriber count climb by the thousands. Dubbed the “SexyJefo Army”, his team of subscribers drove up interaction on Jefo’s Youtube channel, propelling him to the grand number of 1.5 million subscribers, numbers that many Youtubers dream to achieve. Jefo’s Youtube channel was started in May of 2017, and by the time you read this article, his total view count on all videos will be well over 100 million.
Jefo was also able to appeal to the exploding K-pop fanbase of the world. K-pop, a Korean music trend that is spreading rapidly around the world, brings with it hundreds of millions of youth and young adults to platforms like Youtube. Jefo was able to capitalize off of this, starting a sort of “K-pop series” on his channel, producing videos of cover dances to famous K-pop dances and interview of K-pop fans on the streets.
Jefo has not limited himself to only the world of Youtube. With his newfound fame and energy, Jefo was able to partner with Syft, a social media influencer management company. With the help of Syft and his own desires to expand, Jefo was able to work with major internet celebrities like Josh Paler Lin, another Asian-American influencer with millions of subscribers and hundreds of millions of views his own videos. His talents and abilities have also permitted him to serve as the main influencer on projects with companies like Bang Energy and Dollar Shave Club.
Jefo’s focus now can be described as one that seeks to bring more attention to Asian-Americans in mainstream media and the entertainment industry. By partnering with services like EastMeetsWest, an Asian dating app, he is undoubtedly setting roots of Asian-American culture into our social media, creating a space where more Asian-American creators can flourish in the future.
