How would you like to earn $10 for answering a question testing your Mandarin skills?
It is all in the name of edutainment for TikTok account Chinese Hackers, run by 27-year-old twins Austin and Ashley Soon.
In their street interview series, they ask passers-by, mostly students, three close-ended questions with varying levels of difficulty - and reward them with $2, $5 and $10 for answering them correctly.
To their surprise, people "actually do pass all three these days", Austin tells The Straits Times over a video call. "We do give hints because we try to educate and still want people to learn. Maybe only two out of 50 fail."
They came up with the tiered money system as a nifty way to maintain viewer engagement.
"It's to prompt people to continue watching because TikTok is about watch time," says Austin.
"People want to see what the third question is. And the advantage of having three questions is you can slot in a client brand deal in between the second and third questions."
[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@chinese_hackers/video/7194023207400262914?referer_url=www.straitstimes.com%2Flife%2Ftutor-twins-give-out[/embed]
Though they are most recognised for their street interviews, the full-time Chinese tutors started out by posting Chinese examination hacks, such as go-to tips for writing compositions. The page, created in May 2020, racked up a 30,000-strong following.
Then the December school holidays rolled around and nobody wanted exam hacks, says Austin, which drove them to explore new types of content. Inspired by YouTubers from other countries, they tried street interviews.
The videos hit a few million views and the page has more than 128,000 followers.
A lot more content creators are doing it in Singapore now, says Austin. "People find it very relatable - like, hey, that's my neighbourhood, that's my school. And the answers are very Singaporean and relatable."
They did not always have a cash reward either - it was introduced to coax people into participating.
"We realised if there's no money involved, people won't try and will just say 'I don't know'. The whole video wouldn't be educational anymore," he says.
Now that they get recognised, it is easier to find interviewees.
[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@soonbros/video/7057456321959873793?embed_source=121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&r[/embed]
They are mostly students, as "older people are more shy and may not care about the $10 as much". Some would wait for the brothers to show up, as the page used to announce where they would be doing their interviews.
The twins, who are both in relationships, pay out of their own pocket and give out a maximum of $100 in a day of filming. It comes up to no more than $400 a month, which is covered by client videos and their earnings from their tutoring day jobs.
Chinese Hackers began gaining so much traction that they created a second, more lifestyle-centric account, Soon Bros, nine months later in 2021 to accommodate all the brand deals they were receiving.
The questions asked on Soon Bros are more open-ended and range from relationship matters to rewarding people for telling the best joke.
About seven out of 10 of their videos on Soon Bros carry brand endorsements, while Chinese Hackers remains largely advertisement-free. They have worked with more than 50 brands, including Dominos, DBS, Disney+ and Stabilo, as well as some government clients.
Scripting client videos also tests their creativity as they try to make questions less straightforward. Viewers get snarky when they sniff out an ad, says Austin with a laugh. "So we have a softer approach."
He mostly hosts these days as Ashley, who continues to teach online and group tuition, prefers to be behind the camera.
Austin says: "I'm an introvert, but society forced me to be an extrovert."
He adds that he had considered quitting tutoring to focus on content creation full-time. Recently, doing deals surpassed tutoring to become their main source of income, but he declines to reveal exact figures. A sense of duty to his students doing the Primary School Leaving Examination held him back.
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TikTok fame has brought them more tuition clients. While their primary school-age pupils do not use TikTok, it is their millennial parents - mostly in their late 20s to early 40s - who recognise the twins and approach them.
The brothers also sell their notes via Instagram.
Next up for the siblings is navigating TikTok live streams, which they have been using to sell dictionary pens that can translate words between English and Chinese simply by scanning text.
They have also been doing more skits for client videos, mainly starring Austin.
But stardom will always be secondary. "It was accidental. We were both just Chinese tutors."
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.