BANGKOK — Whether she is perched in the back of a water truck, gingerly plucking weeds with her manicured nails or staring down a stray dog on the streets, Pattaramon Thocharoen is always camera-ready with a full face of make-up and several poses. Also known as 'Bow', the 27-year-old has an image to upkeep with over 300,000 TikTok followers, some...
BANGKOK — Whether she is perched in the back of a water truck, gingerly plucking weeds with her manicured nails or staring down a stray dog on the streets, Pattaramon Thocharoen is always camera-ready with a full face of make-up and several poses.
She shot to fame in the past year for the short video clips she posts on TikTok, and is famous for one video in particular where she rants about an older woman who criticised her for dolling up because Ms Pattaramon was "just a street sweeper". She earns about 12,000 baht a month as a street cleaner in the Chom Thong district under the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority. But she can bring in 50,000 baht a month from her social media engagements, such as brand reviews, product sales and virtual TikTok Gifts, which are given by followers and can be converted to cash.
Several digital marketing agencies such as Platform Group have picked up on the rising trend of the "blue-collar" or "ordinary" influencer. The agency currently manages about 500 such content creators, which include housewives, security officers, teachers and factory workers, spread across Thai cities and the countryside.
TikTok in particular, is popular in Thailand, partly driven by the nation's high rate of phone ownership, as well as Internet penetration that is among the top in the region. The rise of such blue-collar influencers does not just stem from the pandemic restrictions where people had more time to consume such content, but also from the desire to engage with "real" people, said Associate Professor Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, who researches social media behaviour at the International College of National Institute of Development Administration.
Giving a platform to those like Pattaramon, whose voices are often ignored in traditional media and society, is definitely a positive outcome of this phenomenon, said social media analysts, and this also gives those earning low wages an opportunity to bridge the income inequality gap.
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