It is enough for a well-known influencer to eat in a restaurant and that place becomes popular. The algorithm doesn't ask if the influencer took money for advertising or if the food is really that good
If you see a queue in the morning on Dorćol, as if something is being handed out for free, it is possible that people are just waiting for a hot burek.
Listen to burek, one would think, isn't there good burek in many places?
But, "Belgrade buregdžinica" quickly reached the popularity that some places failed to acquire through generations of making burek and other things.
That has a lot to thank for. social networks where videos about that very burek are viral. Which does not mean that burek is better than elsewhere.
Marketing or quality?
One video at least famous tiktoker, with the right music and editing, is enough to become a restaurant must try. TikTok makes stars out of restaurants and fast food places, very easily, because it combines several factors that fit perfectly into the concept of virality.
Food in itself is visually appealing - colors, textures, sounds allow us to imagine the smell...
"Currently, the influence of marketing is stronger than the influence of quality and continuity," says Strahinja Ćalović, an influencer with over half a million followers, about social networks.
It's not uncommon for places that offer average food to get the status of "iconic locations" just because the algorithm wanted a video about them to reach a huge number of people. Although, it is not excluded that the food is really good.
That's what the so-called will tell us, instead of the former gastro-critics food bloggers – influencers who visit and film restaurants and fast food places.
And so that the viewer has no idea which of those restaurants paid for the advertisement and which did not. It's harder to find a negative review of a restaurant on TikTok than a criticism of the regime on Pink. As a rule, everything is "delicious", "brutal", "melts in the mouth".
Everyone is interested in food.
Popular on TikTok is Paqito, whose video about the burger in a burek in Bor has almost two million views, and the video about the pastry shop "Orient" has almost four million.
Or the YouTube channel "Hugestaff" where the popular Sremac reviews food. Many videos have over a million views.
According to Ćalović, TikTok changed the algorithms of social networks so that it no longer matters who publishes the content or how popular that author is.
The content itself is more important. And the best chances of getting spins are videos about what interests or concerns the largest number of people.
"Food is probably the broadest concept that unites us all, so the potential of such videos is among the greatest," Ćalović tells Medjuvreme.
"As usual, the trends here are a little late, so now we are looking at what we could see a few years ago in larger markets. I fly in in that trend and I believe that in the future it will be even more diverse," he adds.
Virally or slowly?
Restaurants that focus on quality often can't ride the viral wave.
They build their reputation slowly, through guest satisfaction and word-of-mouth recommendations, which is why they sometimes find themselves overshadowed by viral restaurants.
However, such hard-earned popularity can also be more stable. If people are disappointed with a restaurant they saw on TikTok, then they won't go back there. But for the industry, it doesn't matter - viral will become something else.
This October, "Vreme" celebrates and honors - as much as 35 percent discount for our 35th birthday! Valid for semi-annual and annual subscriptions. Subscribe now!
Like before Caro Claire Burke not only exposed the false image of a traditional woman in America, but also showed the level of women's rights in general - feminists claim. This novel is a direct attack on the traditional way of life - according to conservative Christian women
Forty years of a hairy creature who survived a nuclear disaster on Malmak, and everything he knows about America he learned from an advertising-paid program
In the underdeveloped south, where the saying Pyrrhic victory was born, where 813 men were killed because they did not want to convert to Islam, where the ancient Romans saw war elephants for the first time and many other unrepeatable things
A 24-carat pink diamond, known as the Bulgari Pink, has sold for more than $14,6 million at an auction in Geneva
Kristaps Porzingis retires from the court due to health problems. He was previously diagnosed with POTS, a syndrome that can cause exhaustion, dizziness and a rapid heart rate
At the moment when the institutions of the Republic are destroyed, when Vučić's octopus is still alive, when people are disgusted by the injustice and the stench left behind by the Essenes regime, we have, as Machiavelli said, only civic virtue as the fuel with which we can return to the beginning
The four independent members of REM are an example of perseverance and civic responsibility. Rodoljub Šabić even, upon leaving the premises of REM, after the sentencing of the Informer, experienced that the Essenes insulted him, hit him with their hands and feet. But that too will soon be over
Vučić pardoned the batterers and Dijana Hrkalović. The election winners should abolish the sultan's power that allows one man to run afoul of the entire judicial system
Interview: Branko Stamenković, public prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office
A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
