Being a content creator is a dream for many—who would say no to the thought of eating and traveling around the country (or world) for free? Even more alluring is the prospect of being paid to do the above, and gaining fame and influence along the way.
But can it be a standalone job that provides a reasonable income in the long term? To better understand the profession, we talked to four of Manila’s most beloved food vloggers: Cody Yap (Remy Eats), Gwen Sy, Kelby Uy (NakakaLokal), and Mico Cruz.
Cody Yap
Much of the online world knows him as the face of Remy Eats (@remyeats), and might even mistakenly call him Remy. But the man behind the account is 25-year-old Cody Yap, who works for a digital bank during the day. He’d long been inclined to go the finance route after graduating with a management economics degree from Ateneo but knew in his heart that he had a thing for entrepreneurship.
While studying coding, he put the learnings into practice and created the Remy Eats app (recently rebranded as Recs) in 2024. The app functioned as a community-oriented restaurant directory, and Yap realized he could market it on social media by going the food vlogging route. But it got to a point where the vlogs got more popular than the app, he says with a laugh. His first post that blew up was of Scratch Burgers in Poblacion; seeing it reach 100,000 views on TikTok “felt crazy.”
Yap, who is chill overall but has a genuine love of eating that comes across on camera, has since covered hundreds of spots and landed brand deals with the Hunt’s, Chowking, GCash, and more.
Gwen Sy
A long-time creative and food lover, 24-year-old Gwen Sy started her content creation journey in college as a way of melding her different passions and interests. She learned the fundamentals of making videos as a communication arts student at De La Salle University, through which she gained experience doing color grading, camera work, and production; and honed her skills interning for Pepper.ph and taking online courses on Youtube University.
Initially, Sy treated her socials as more of a personal journal of sorts and covered a wider assortment of topics but found that it was the food reviews that resonated with her viewers the most. One of her early posts that hit it off was a collective matcha ranking and review vlog, which reached around 10,000 views in the first 24 hours.
Today, Sy does content creation on the side while working a full-time marketing job for an e-commerce company. She continues on the hunt for Manila’s best matcha by visiting and covering cafés around the city (when she’s not mixing her own, anyway); she’s also done collabs with the likes of Grab, The Bistro Group, and Goldilocks.
Kelby Uy
A political science graduate from UP Diliman, Kelby Uy is a 31-year-old attorney by day who works in a legislative role. On the side, he follows his other passion, eating at restaurants across the city and beyond as Nakakalokal (@nakaka.lokal).
It was in his last year in law school in 2022 when he got the idea to post food content on his social media pages. His goal at the time was to help his parents’ business in Baguio by promoting the city’s food products, posted as flatlays. He was initially resistant to doing videos as was “so awkward”—but brand inquiries kept coming in, and many called for the video format with voiceovers. He decided to try it, and gradually felt comfortable appearing and talking on camera the more he did it.
Uy calls the growth of his accounts a “slow burn” but he’s certainly flourished and has covered hundreds of restaurants. He’s also done partnerships with Puma, Ayala Malls, Chowking, and more.
Mico Cruz
Twenty-six-year-old Mico Cruz is a communications technology management graduate from Ateneo, who was part of the production team of Ateneo CADS and even did videography work. After graduating, he spent three years working in a marketing firm whose clients were food and drink brands. The job entailed working with influencers often and soon enough, he found himself becoming a content creator himself.
His big break was when he posted reels of places he visited in Hong Kong, initially intended as a way for him to share his experiences with friends but he was blown away by the traction they got. With the encouragement of his family and peers, he decided to dive into content creation more formally and cover dining spots here in the Philippines.
Content creation as a career
A perk of being in content creation is getting invited to cover restaurant openings and new releases, giving them free material they can use for content, which in turn promotes the establishment that invited them. The discretion is up to the creators on whether to take up the invite, and what kind of output to publish. And while many invites are unpaid, there is also an opportunity for monetization.
Uy mostly only charges when the scope is “complex”: “When some brands already start giving you brief, there’s already an expectation for you to perform… it becomes like [full-on] work.” He considers a number of factors in pricing—including the nature of the restaurant or brand inviting; his relationship with those inviting; and the scope of work.
“When some brands already start giving you brief, there’s already an expectation for you to perform… it becomes like [full-on] work,” says Kelby Uy
Cruz charges when the deliverables or features are framed as “mandatory.” But he remains discerning, even when there’s an opportunity to get paid. For Sy, it depends on the type of output being asked—say, appearances vs. a feed post vs. a reel—and if those inviting want it boosted.
Occasionally, content creators are given opportunities to work with bigger brands in the form of sponsored posts and brand deals. These are the more lucrative areas of monetization, making up the bulk of earnings for many content creators.
In Yap’s case, brand deals make up about 30 percent of what he covers, earning him a moderate amount (“I’ll just say five digits,” he says with a laugh) that helps offset the rest of the things he covers for free.
Uy shares there are some brands that do more long-term, yearly (as opposed to just project-based) partnerships—which gives them a sort of monthly salary from the brand, at least for the duration of the partnership. On some months, brand deals make up to 70 percent of his total earnings (including that from his full-time job); other months, there are none at all.
Creators can also earn through content monetization or creator rewards programs on social media platforms (as of writing, availability in the Philippines is limited); affiliate marketing; selling of merchandise, and more.
One of the drawbacks of content creation as a career is that the income can be erratic. This inconsistency can make things more complicated for those who do content creation as their sole, full-time job. Cruz, for one, admits it wasn’t a walk in the park after he left his old marketing job to go the full-time vlogging route. “There was a really dry spell where I didn’t have any money. I would probably only earn the lower end of five digits in a month… [or even just] four digits.”
Full-time job or side hustle?
There are, of course, full-time creators who achieve great success—but behind this success is strategy, hard work, and arguably at least a little bit of luck.
Yap, Sy, and Uy all continue to work their separate full-time jobs during the day. Sy, for one, considers it important to have something “stable” given the more inconsistent aspects that come with being a creator.
“There was a really dry spell where I didn’t have any money. I would probably only earn the lower end of five digits in a month… [or even just] four digits,” says Mico Cruz
Uy contends that content creation can be sustainable as a career if you’re willing to “market yourself consistently and do the work.” “It’s like a business. There’s you, the product—and then you sell it to the public, you let the public consume it.”
Yap, who considers content creation to be a “creative escape,” relies on time management to balance his full-time job and content creation. “I think on a typical day, I would spend around two hours just to go to the restaurant and eat. Then maybe 30 minutes to edit videos.”
In Sy’s case, her full-time job goes by a hybrid setup, which gives her more leeway to attend events without it coming in the way of her main job deliverables.
Whatever the numbers, the creators stress the importance of loving the work you put out. Content creation is, after all, in most aspects still ultimately creative—and personal.
Asked what it takes to be a successful creator, Uy and Yap agree that it’s about liking what you do. “Some days are going to be hard, especially with the crazy algorithm,” says Uy. “What I always tell myself is, ‘Just keep doing it.’… Just think of ways to improve and go back to your core.”
While the fame and freebies are no doubt fun, what ultimately fulfills Sy about content creation is the impact it leaves on the establishments and her viewers.
“I think it’s a common misconception that these invites or free food is the best part of being a content creator. For me, it’s actually seeing a place I featured get viral or popular… [either] the establishment lets me know that my post was a really great help [in getting the word out], or people tell me that they [visited] a place and really loved it because they saw that I featured it. Honestly, there’s no better feeling than those two.”
