Skip to main content

The star of YouTube’s largest photography channel, DigitalRev, is going solo

THE END
For the past nine years, photographers around the world have tuned in to watch DigitalRev TV on YouTube. It boasts more than 1.7 million subscribers, making it the most popular photography channel on YouTube. This popularity is undoubtedly thanks to DigitalRev’s entertaining host, Kai Man Wong. Known to viewers simply as Kai, he joined DigitalRev in 2009. Now, however, Wong and DigitalRev are parting ways.

The announcement was made in a video on Wong’s new, solo YouTube channel. In it, he thanks everyone at DigitalRev while laying out plans, of sorts, for the future of his own channel, which may branch out into other types of tech in addition to camera gear. He also shares some advice that aspiring YouTubers or anyone looking for a job in video production will appreciate.

Recommended Videos

“You see, life is all about taking opportunities, getting your foot in the door,” he says in the video. “But sometimes it’s about jamming your bloody foot in the door and creating opportunities.” Wong had applied for an editing position with DigitalRev, but convinced the company that the future was in creating entertaining, original content — and that is exactly what the company let him do. The “Cheap Camera Challenge,” which put an outdated or toy camera in the hands of a working pro, was one of his most successful creations.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Wong, who is from the U.K., worked for DigitalRev in Hong Kong alongside the equally hilarious cameraman and occasional co-host, Lok Cheung. The two had vastly different on-screen personalities, which made for a photography show that was surprisingly entertaining. However, in 2015, Kai returned home to the U.K., and DigitalRev TV just wasn’t the same since, according to FStoppers.

Still, after a successful seven-year run, it is hard to ask for more. DigitalRev TV will continue, of course, but without its charismatic host, its future is a little unclear. Wong will likely bring many viewers to his personal channel, but his content may be limited until such a time as the channel can support itself. With any luck, the transition will be beneficial to both Wong and DigitalRev, and hopefully, viewers will soon have even more great content to watch.

Daven Mathies
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Daven is a contributing writer to the photography section. He has been with Digital Trends since 2016 and has been writing…
YouTube to overhaul channel names with @ handles for all
Youtube video on mobile. Credits: YouTube official.

YouTube is launching “handles” to make it easier for viewers to find and engage with creators on the video-sharing platform.

The change means that soon, every channel will have a unique handle denoted by an "@" mark, "making it easier for fans to discover content and interact with creators they love," the Google-owned company said in a post announcing the change.

Read more
Searches for health topics on YouTube now highlights personal stories
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

Google and TikTok aren't the only places people look for information on health issues. YouTube is another resource people look to for educating themselves on health-related topics. Now, YouTube has launched a new feature in an attempt to further support those queries in a different way.

On Wednesday, the video-sharing website announced its latest feature via a blog post. Known as a Personal Stories shelf, the new search-related feature will yield a "shelf" of personal story videos about the health topics users search for. Essentially, if you search for a health topic, a Personal Stories shelf may appear in your search results and it will be populated with YouTube videos that feature personal stories about people who have experienced the health issue you searched for.

Read more
This beloved TikTok feature is coming to YouTube Shorts
Two mobile devices showing two people dancing in YouTube Shorts videos.

YouTube Shorts, the video-sharing website's answer to TikTok videos, is getting a new comment reply feature and with it, looks more like its wildly popular competitor.

On Thursday, the new feature was announced via an update to a YouTube Help thread titled "New Features and Updates for Shorts Viewers & Creators." The announcement was posted by a TeamYouTube community manager.

Read more