A 36-Minute Talk on Love Wins a Shanghai Blogger 4.48 Million Fans Over One Week

A Shanghai-based video blogger whose posts rarely drew more than a few hundred likes gained over 4.48 million Douyin followers in a single week after uploading a 36-minute monologue about love, according to a Lanjing News report carried by The Paper.

The creator posts as "Michael Damaige," pairing his English name with Damaige, the pinyin of his online nickname, which roughly means "Big Brother Mai." He topped Douyin's weekly follower-growth chart, and by the time of the report the video, posted on October 19, had collected 11.35 million likes and more than 5 million shares, while a related hashtag had drawn over 50 million viewers. His Douyin account stood at 6.15 million followers and his podcast on the audio platform Xiaoyuzhou had passed 350,000 subscribers, Lanjing News said.

The video has none of the tricks that usually power short-video hits. Sitting alone before the camera in an orange cap and a striped top, with soft music in the background, he admits he still does not fully understand love. He then walks through six things he says he has learned: a partner cannot be your whole world, even the closest couple needs space, sacrifices should not become "a bill the other person doesn't know exists," deep conversation matters more than small talk, physical attraction has to be kept alive, and advice from others should never replace your own decision.

The attention quickly turned into money. Lanjing News said his rate now stands at 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) for a product placement and 120,000 yuan for a custom video, and that he has moved to the top of the monthly relationships chart on Xingtu, ByteDance's influencer-marketing platform. Two of the four videos he has posted since the hit already carry sponsored content, for a sports-nutrition brand and a hair-loss treatment. He is signed to Songzi, a multichannel network representing more than 500 creators.

That sudden success followed several years of posting to a small audience. He began uploading fairly regularly in 2022, mixing hobbies, career advice and reflections on life, and until a minor hit in March 2025 his videos typically drew likes in the double or triple digits, Lanjing News reported. His own videos describe a decade of training for triathlons and long-distance cycling, a bout of thyroid cancer, the end of an eight-year marriage and a layoff from a major internet company.

In an interview with Newrank, he said he was born in Hong Kong in 1985 and studied management in Britain, paying his way by washing dishes and working in kitchens and at Starbucks. After returning to the Chinese mainland in 2012, he worked at Apple, Alibaba and Meituan. He told Newrank that he picked up a camera on a friend's advice on April 18, 2022, shortly after his marriage ended, and turned to content full time after losing his job in 2023.

Before the video took off, he lived alone in Shanghai with a cat and sometimes earned only a few tens of thousands of yuan a year from his channel, yet still spent around 20,000 yuan annually on editing software and licensed music.

Speaking to First Scene, a Shenzhen news outlet, he said making videos had been his way out of the gloom that followed his divorce. "Time is never the ultimate solution, because the problem is still there," he said. "You have to face it. Write it down or film it, but you need an outlet."

He has also resisted pressure to make his videos shorter. "Many videos on the platforms now last 10 or 20 seconds, but this is what I like to do," he said, according to Lanjing News. "If I did it just to cater to other people, why would I do it at all?"

His hit arrived as screens were filling with machine-made content. China Netcasting Services Association released data showing that AI-generated titles made up more than 95 percent of micro-dramas launched in the first quarter of 2026, and argued that "a sense of a real human presence" was becoming a scarce resource.

A People's Daily article in late June asked whether audiences had grown tired of "AI faces" and said it was time for real people to come back. Lanjing News made a similar point about the Hongguo era, named after the micro-drama app that turned binge-watching into a habit, observing that a 36-minute talk which got people to stop and discuss love had "a curious retro feel."

Platforms have also been making room for longer, human-made content. Douyin said at its creator conference in September 2025 that watch time for quality content had risen 220 percent year on year and that its Douyin Jingxuan app would back quality mid-length and long videos, Xinhua reported. YouTube said in February 2025 that more than 1 billion people watch podcasts on it every month, and in his annual letter this January its chief executive, Neal Mohan, acknowledged "AI slop" on the platform and said its systems were working to curb its spread.

AI content has hardly retreated, however, and on the same Newrank chart that put Michael Damaige at No. 1, accounts posting AI remixes and AI short dramas were also gaining followers quickly.

Lanjing News called his rise a rare breakout for a male creator in the relationships category. He told First Scene that he has turned down most of the brands that came calling since the video took off, and that the only real change in his life is that he no longer has to worry much about paying his rent at the end of the year.

He told Newrank that he now limits paid deals to three or four a month and is wary of the "life mentor" label that young viewers have given him. "I've done well enough just to figure myself out," he said. "I can't be anyone's mentor."