About
In the hyper-saturated world of New York City food media, Benjamin Qiu and Ming-Cee, the duo behind the YouTube channel The Bing Buzz, have carved out an influential niche through a disarmingly simple premise: asking locals where to eat. Their channel, which presents itself as “filming videos for our grandkids to watch someday,” has evolved from a local vlog into a well-organized multi-platform brand. Operating as a self-described “New York-based food lover and photographer/videographer duo,” they have built a loyal following by turning the camera away from the city’s hyped-up culinary destinations and toward its neighborhood experts—the residents themselves.
The Bing Buzz: History and Growth
The Bing Buzz YouTube channel was officially created on November 19, 2018. The project was born from the deep local roots of its creators; Ming-Cee is a Queens resident of over 20 years, while Benjamin Qiu has lived in the borough for more than a decade. Their connection to the community was the bedrock of their mission, which a profile in the Queens Gazette defined as taking viewers on a journey through the city via meals, events, and conversations.
Early content, documented on their WordPress blog starting in February 2019, cast a wide net, covering general interest New York events like the Renegade Craft Fair and PetCon. This initial broad approach soon sharpened with the development of their signature format, the “Eat Like A Local” series. This strategic pivot became the channel’s defining feature and a significant driver of viewership, providing a clear and authentic value proposition in a crowded market.
Ming-Cee’s identity extends beyond content creation. In an interview on “The City Confessions” podcast with host Mariann Yip, she was identified as both the food photographer for The Bing Buzz and a practicing Occupational Therapist, highlighting a dual professional life that informs the channel’s grounded perspective.
The Bing Buzz: Content and Style
The core of The Bing Buzz’s content is the long-form vlog, typically between 10 and 20 minutes, documenting food explorations. The “Eat Like A Local” series is their stylistic calling card, characterized by spontaneous, on-the-street interviews with New Yorkers to unearth authentic, locally-endorsed establishments. This format has led them to uncover and popularize a wide range of culinary experiences, from the Henan-style hand-pulled noodles at Spicy Village in Chinatown to the Korean-Chinese comfort food at Joong Koog Jip in Bayside. Their videos often include granular detail, such as the full addresses and operating hours of the restaurants they visit.
After solidifying their audience with this food-centric niche, the duo strategically re-broadened their scope. Their playlists now include international travel vlogs to destinations such as Spain, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Concurrently, they began integrating personal lifestyle content, which was readily embraced by their established community. This includes intimate videos documenting their Manhattan apartment hunt, their wedding, and their pregnancy journey, exemplified by a reel titled “My mom’s first time seeing my baby bump in person.” The channel has also embraced shorter formats, utilizing YouTube Shorts for quick highlights and engaging in occasional live streams, such as a walking tour of Long Island City.
How The Bing Buzz Makes Money
The Bing Buzz operates as a professional media business with a diversified monetization strategy that mitigates reliance on any single revenue stream. Beyond standard YouTube AdSense, their business model is built on three key pillars.
First is direct community support through a Patreon page, which they actively promote as a way for viewers to enable the creation of more content. Second is a robust affiliate marketing program. The creators maintain an official Amazon Storefront, amazon.com/shop/thebingbuzz, where they list their filming equipment, earning a commission on sales. They also use an affiliate link for Epidemic Sound, the service providing music for their videos.
Third, the channel engages in selective brand sponsorships. A notable partnership with crib mattress company Newton Baby included a sponsored video with a unique tracking URL containing the parameter utm_term=ming_cee, providing a direct commercial link to Ming-Cee’s identity. They have also partnered with brands like Vitamin Water for content on their TikTok account. The duo maintains a network of three associated YouTube channels—Benjamin Qiu’s personal channel (@Qiubenjamin), a secondary channel (@BingBuzzExtra), and Ming-Cee’s personal channel (@mingakaming)—to allow for content diversification.
The Bing Buzz's Collaborations
Strategic collaborations have been instrumental to The Bing Buzz’s growth, executed through a two-pronged strategy of reinforcing their local niche while simultaneously reaching for a global audience.
To solidify their authority within the NYC vlogging community, they have partnered with prominent local creators. They have filmed multiple videos and live streams with ActionKid, known for his NYC walking tours, exploring neighborhoods like Flushing and Long Island City. They also collaborated with fellow food vlogger Jon Barr of Here Be Barr for a “Chinatown Dumpling Crawl” and filmed with travel vlogger David Hoffmann of David’s Been Here at a North Indian restaurant in Tribeca.
Their most significant collaboration represented an “up-leveling” strategy. Ben and Ming served as credited “Local Producers” for an NYC-based episode of the Best Ever Food Review Show, a globally popular channel hosted by Sonny Side. This role positioned them as knowledgeable fixers on the city’s food scene. The explicit endorsement from Side at the video’s conclusion, where he encouraged his millions of viewers to follow The Bing Buzz, served as a powerful testimonial that significantly enhanced their international credibility.
The Bing Buzz: Public Reception
The Bing Buzz has garnered positive media attention and maintains a favorable public image. Their most comprehensive coverage is a “Local-Express” feature in the Queens Gazette, which profiled the creators and their mission in detail. Ming-Cee’s appearance on “The City Confessions” podcast further cemented their status as respected figures in the local creator community.
A thorough review of the research dossier, including searches designed to uncover negative sentiment or public disputes, found no verifiable evidence of controversies, scandals, or platform policy violations. Based on all available information, the channel and its creators maintain an uncontroversial and positive public reputation.
The Bing Buzz Today
From a channel created on November 19, 2018, Benjamin Qiu and Ming-Cee have built The Bing Buzz into a fixture of New York City’s digital food landscape. Their success is a proof to a refined content strategy: moving from broad city-wide topics to a focused, high-value niche, and then leveraging a loyal community to support a return to more diverse personal and travel content. With a subscriber count of 63,800 and over 22.6 million views across 936 videos, their on-the-ground, community-sourced approach has proven to be a powerful model for authenticity in the creator economy.