From high kicks to high jinks

Text: Wong S.Y.

More than 23 million followers on TikTok. And counting.

About 12 million subscribers on YouTube and 4 million followers on Facebook. And counting.

Over 10 billion video views. And counting.

These make NTU alumnus Ng Ming Wei a bona fide Internet celebrity, with followers coming from around the planet. Half a million followers in any platform qualifies as an influencer in local social media. Ming Wei is already in another stratosphere. And his star is still rising.

The former national taekwondo athlete has “sparred” with Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on Facebook to promote health and fitness – never mind that one has a black belt and the other, white. Ming Wei has also worked with other ministers to promote government policies.

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Ming Wei kickstarted his digital media career. The circuit breaker curtailed his intensive training regime and left the taekwondo champ stuck at home. It was a crushing blow for the athlete, who had hopes of making it to the Olympic Games.

Like the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens. With the help of his initially reluctant dad, Cedric, Ming Wei produced a series of laugh-a-minute TikTok videos, often featuring him as the target of pranks played by his dad or his NTU buddies.

The virtual highway was bumpy in the beginning, but Ming Wei took it all on his chin, and yes, in his face too. In his madcap videos, Ming Wei gets flour in his face, egg in his face, and soft drink in his face.

Though he is often at the end of practical jokes in his videos, that does not bother the 2021 psychology graduate. “You don’t make videos you like but videos that viewers like,” he says.

The prank videos went viral and within months, he surpassed 10 million followers on the platform. In the same year, he founded Boom Digital Media – and boom it did. He has since translated his experience on TikTok into successful social media strategies for clients like ONE Championship, Hard Rock Café and Huawei.

Being data-driven, it’s no surprise that his favourite module at NTU was Statistics. He studies the performance analytics of his videos to see what works and at which point in the video viewers drop off.

As CEO of a media company, Ming Wei’s biggest challenge is to hire people with the right mix of personality and skill for the social media sphere. Around 70 per cent of his staff are fellow NTU alumni. Ming Wei says they “work together and grow together”, and he shuns the “boss” tag.

The true sportsman that he is, Ming Wei knows the value of hard work, showing grit and discipline as he drove his TikTok follower base from 10 million to 20 million. Surviving on four hours of sleep daily, he scripted, filmed, edited, and posted multiple videos a day.

Is there a better way to promote healthy living than kicking a bottle of water off the top of the Health Minister’s head? We can’t think of any. 

But after going beyond 20 million followers, he reflected on what viral fame meant to him. The smiley psychology graduate wants to use it to promote social responsibility, championing good causes such as TikTok’s #thinkb4youdo online safety campaign to warn netizens against taking up dangerous challenges that are trending.

He says: “My true happiness doesn’t come from the follower count I have but from the fact that I’m able to influence someone positively and also by helping others succeed by sharing my knowledge.”

From bemedalled sportsman to CEO of a booming digital media company, Ming Wei has shown tenacity and resilience are chops needed for success, but helping others to do good is just as important. And he has achieved all these before he has even turned 30.

Check out @NTUsg's TikTok post featuring @mingweirocks.

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This article first appeared in issue 5 of U, the NTU alumni magazine.