Cyber Culture Craze: Hawaii’s own Internet sensations

The internet is an easy way for people to congregate, communicate and exchange commerce and Hawaii has been at the forefront of flipping the idea of fame and business success.

He’s funny, quirky, sometimes over the top.

While some have never even seen one of his videos, for millions around the world – including many here in Hawaii – Ryan Higa is a household name.

Ryan began posting videos to Youtube from his home in Hilo in 2006.

"It was just for maybe 10 people and I left it alone for a couple months and like two months later it had 5,000 views, I was like why did you guys watch this so many times?" he says.

But that was only the beginning. Ryan was soon to become a social media superstar – the first Youtube channel to reach 3 million subscribers. 

Now he’s up to 4.6 million subscribers and the second most subscribed YouTube channel of all time.

Ryan isn’t the only Hawaii native making an impact on the digital landscape.  Honolulu bloggers Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami created one of the most popular internet sites on the web Icanhascheezeburger.com featuring lol cats – which are pictures of cats with humorous captions.   They eventually sold the site in 2007 for an estimated $2 million.

Folks like Dr. Peter Leong are also jumping on to the cyber culture wave of opportunity.

"In this day and age when we spend so much time on line virtually in 2D or 3D it has become a way for us to meet and network with others," Dr. Leong says.

Dr. Leong created a virtual UH manoa campus within the online world Second Life.

Last spring, they used the virtual campus to hold a graduation ceremony for 22 UH Manoa students.

Second Life has about one million active users. Some are there for fun others for learning but a good number of users see dollar signs.

In February 2009 – 64,000 users made a profit in Second Life – 233 of those made more than $5,000.

"It allows the individual, the small business to prosper and the ability for a person to actually have a business in Second Life," Leong says.

Second Life is one example. Some users of Twitter and Youtube are bringing in six-figure salaries from their own bedrooms.

"I’ve never personally tried to seek out a company, but I’ve been approached by people like Pepsi, Carl’s Junior all these big companies. I’m like, that’s pretty cool," Higa says.

With millions of views being generated online, corporate companies are looking to folks like Ryan to market their brand.  Changing the way businesses operate.

"I think that’s the future, I think that’s where everything is headed," Higa says.