When Kimia Ravangar started streaming herself playing video games in her native Persian tongue nearly eight years ago, there was no promise that her content would ever be a meaningful source of income, let alone a career.
Now, she’s a full-time YouTuber with more than 630,000 subscribers on her channel, which has racked up around 340 million total views.
And things are only going up.
Ravangar, along with her creator teammates Kourosh Zarandooz and Iman Dastpak, have launched a new custom studio in North Vancouver, where their empire of lifestyle and food videos, podcasting and music making is growing by the second.
Ravangar’s “Mia Plays” channel, as well as Zarandooz and Dastpak’s “Kouman” account, are not merely one-hit wonders of the internet age of virality.
With the eyes of their dedicated audience, each new video draws in hundreds of thousands of views immediately following release.
For example, a trivia-style video titled میا باهوشتره یا ما؟؟ (translation: Is Mia smarter or us?) has more than a million views after going live on Dec. 13. That post, where the three friends face off in a quiz competition to win the Kouman championship belt, has also generated 39,000 likes and 8,164 comments since release.
When you put up numbers like that, YouTube partners Ravangar, Zarandooz and Dastpak can put numbers in their bank accounts. According to research from Oxford Economics, YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed more than $2 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2023, and supported more than 35,000 full-time-equivalent jobs.
At their studio in late November, the trio hosted a mixer with other well-known Canadian YouTubers including food vlogger Tim Lee, van-life expert and builder Morley Kert, and West Van DIY home renovator Jenna Phipps.
Consistency is key in the YouTube biz
What does it take to make it in the YouTube biz?
One of the most important ingredients is consistency, Zarandooz said.
“We always try to upload on a certain day at a certain time, and we haven’t missed it for years now,” he said.
Another key to success is always trying to level up their content.
“We see what people like, what our audience likes, and we try to do it better and better each time. So we never say, ‘OK, it’s good enough,’” Zarandooz said. “We always try to upgrade, from our equipment to our videos to ourselves.”
The crew didn’t arrive at their current style of content creation overnight. While her career started with online multiplayer video games like Overwatch, now most of her videos tackle day-to-day topics like what she normally eats in a week, or trying novel activities like doing yoga with goats.
Much of the content on the Kouman channel is related to food, by way of either food-related challenges or review content. A lot of what they choose to feature are cultural items related to their Iranian heritage.
“We have a rough formula for what content we like and what we don’t, but it’s not super narrow,” Zarandooz said. “It just has to be entertaining.”
But often it’s the characters, not the content, that viewers tune in for, Dastpak said.
“Sometimes they want to know what Kourosh thinks about this food, or what Mia thinks about a challenge that we doing,” he said.
Platform allows creators to reach Persian speakers worldwide, friends and family in Iran
Unlike traditional media like television, YouTube allows the crew to film in North Van and immediately reach a worldwide audience. Most members of their audience are Persian speakers living internationally and in their native Iran.
But the global nature of YouTube content isn’t unique to them. More than 90 per cent of watch time for content made by Canadian creators comes from outside the country, according to the platform.
Ravangar, who would be prohibited from making most of her content if she still lived in her hometown of Tehran, said she has some mixed feelings about her current home and career.
“I feel very fortunate to be here and to be able to do what I do, which is something that I could not have done freely back in Iran,” she said. “But at the same time, you feel really close to home at the end of the day.”
While living in Canada, they’re separated from friends and family back in Iran, but their channel allows them to connect with Persian speakers around the globe.
“We try to engage with the people back in [Iran] as well with polls … like, what do we want to test?” Zarandooz said. “We get snacks and food shipped from there, so we can try them – stuff that right now people are eating in Iran, so it’s more relatable.”
As their online content business grows larger, more opportunities are opening up for Ravangar, Zarandooz and Dastpak.
Andrew Peterson, head of Canada at YouTube, said the trio are at the top of their game in what he calls “the new Hollywood.”
“They’ve grown to a scale where they have a partner manager at YouTube, which helps them to evolve their channel strategy to build a thriving business,” he said.
Having their North Vancouver studio gives them more flexibility to film a range of content with high-quality production value.
“Here we have the opportunity to do whatever you want,” Zarandooz said. “Being here has been a big opportunity for us, and we’re really grateful for it.
“The beauty of the North Shore, North Vancouver and Canada – it’s so nice that every time we just take a camera and whichever way you would point the camera, it’s so beautiful,” he said. “We can make the nicest blogs here and nicest content here, so it’s amazing.”
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