In 2018, after learning about the Rohingya crisis from a YouTube video, Steve Long packed his bags and arrived in Bangladesh from Germany to help out at the refugee camps.
Long was shocked that though such a major humanitarian crisis was unfolding in a different part of the world, in Germany, it barely made the news.
At the time, he was working for the American technology company GoPro, selling cameras. But wanting more in life and moved by the Rohingya crisis, Long decided to visit Bangladesh and help out at the camps.
“Since I did not have the proper qualifications, no INGO would hire me. So, I interviewed for a local NGO and they sent me to the camps for food preparation and distribution,” Long recalled.
Social media fame
Long believed that the refugee crisis deserved greater public awareness in his home country, so he wanted to create a YouTube channel and shoot videos at the camps, hoping that his friends back in Germany would watch his videos and learn more about the Rohingyas, leading to more eyes on the crisis.
“I used to just sell cameras for GoPro, so I was not an expert in shooting videos. I had to teach myself shooting and editing videos by watching hundreds of hours of YouTube content.”
Initially, his videos on YouTube were only about the refugee camps, with shoddy editing and camerawork, as he was still in the process of learning.
However, after uploading a few videos on his channel, Long realised that people back in Germany were not interested in watching his content, but he was gathering some steam with the local Bangladeshi population.
Noticing this, Long decided to pivot from his targeted audience and began making general travel vlogs in Bangladesh. “Video content in Bangladesh writes itself. There is always so much happening on the streets and it is so lively,” Long said.
For one of his travel vlogs, Long decided to ride a local ENA bus and upload his experience on Youtube. The video went viral with Bangladeshis, bringing in over 300,000 views.
“After that, I just started having fun with my videos, trying out new local foods, going to different places, and so on,” Long explained.
But Long is quite aware of the stigma of a foreigner coming to Bangladesh and exploiting the population for views. He maintains that he is not an influencer looking for fame or money, “I am a normal human, not a super rich foreigner who rides a fancy car and has curated experiences.
“I do all the local things, I eat local foods, and ride local buses. When I go to Sylhet I take a Tk400 ENA bus like everyone else, and I go to the local restaurant and order biryani,” he added.
Long is known as ‘Lomba bhai’ to his fans
“I am not known as ‘Lomba’ because I am tall. I am only tall here, but in Germany I am average. I actually translate my last name to the language of the country that I am residing in. In Spain I would be called ‘Largo’, here I am called ‘Lomba’ as it is the local meaning of the word long.”
Releasing Bangladesh’s first sugar-free electrolyte drink
In the beginning, Long would travel to Bangladesh for a few weeks every year to pursue his YouTube career and then head back to Germany. But once Covid-19 led to a global shutdown, Long was stuck in Germany for a while. When the pandemic was over, Long could not wait to return to the country.
“When I came back to Bangladesh after Covid-19, I had to think a lot about what I wanted to do. While making YouTube videos was very fun, it was not going to sustain my livelihood in the country,” Long explained.
He revealed that due to a lack of advertisers, YouTube views by Bangladeshis only pays a meagre amount. As such, he needed to find a different way to earn money if he wanted to keep living in Bangladesh for longer periods of time.
For that, Long tapped into his passion for sports. In order to replenish his stamina, Long is used to consuming plenty of electrolyte drinks in Germany. However, he found it quite difficult to do so in Bangladesh.
“In Bangladesh, everything has so much sugar in it. Even electrolyte drinks recommended to people are full of unhealthy amounts of sugar. I even made a video on YouTube showing the amount of sugar content in your average 200 ml drink. I couldn’t believe it!” exclaimed Long.
Long realised that if he wanted to fill up on his minerals, he needed healthier drinks. That gave birth to the idea of ‘Stryker’ — a flavoured electrolyte drink with zero sugar.
He did not want to compromise on the quality of the drink, as he believes in providing a healthier alternative. It was important to him to maintain the highest standards of quality and production because he represented the German people. “If there are leaks of badly maintained factories, no one in Bangladesh will trust Germans again,” he laughed.
So, the formula he picked out was made according to the highest German standards for an electrolyte drink, consisting of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium.
Long explained, “When you sweat, you do not only lose salt, you also lose other minerals. Potassium is for heart health, and magnesium is for recovery. When you sweat due to the heat, or suffer from food poisoning or diarrhoea, you need to regain all of those minerals back.”
One of the elements that Long wanted to get right was the price of Stryker. Imported products usually cost a lot more, but he wanted to make it affordable. The way Long managed to keep the costs down was by deciding that most of the ingredients would be imported, but the production and manufacturing would take place in Bangladesh in local factories.
“Importing the whole drink after making it in Germany would cost around Tk400 per bottle, but this way I am selling it for Tk100 without compromising on quality,” he explained.
To make this happen, Long visited several manufacturers and production facilities in Bangladesh. Eventually, he chose to partner with Bruvana Beverages after ensuring that their factory meets high-quality standards and could reliably maintain the product consistency Long was aiming for.
“It was crucial for me to work with a company that has a clean record with regulatory authorities. I made it a strict requirement that Stryker would only be launched after successfully passing all official quality checks and receiving full approval from BSTI and other relevant bodies,” mentioned Long.
When it came to deciding on the flavours for his drinks, Long did some research and found out that Bangladeshis love mango, watermelon and orange flavours. But Long wanted to make a more unique product, so he decided to mix the flavours, creating three distinct ones: Mango Orange, Strawberry Watermelon, and Blue Raspberry.
In order to advertise the launch of his products, Long relied solely on personal marketing by putting his YouTube skills to good use. He created a storyline on his YouTube channel, looking for drinks and only finding unhealthy ones full of sugar. He then took the samples to a lab in Germany, documenting everything on YouTube.
When he returned, he provided samples of his flavours to local people on the streets of Bangladesh and received positive feedback. “Once the German food developer made the flavours, I told him to make it 10 times sweeter because Bangladeshis love sweet drinks,” he said. But Long’s formula uses artificial sweeteners instead of sugar.
“In Germany, everyone drinks a famous blue drink called Powerade. So, I wanted to make one for Bangladeshis too. But when I provided samples to locals, many said that it tasted like syrup medicine.” He was shocked by this, humorously wondering what kind of medicine Bangladeshis are having. He adds, “The blue one is still my personal favourite. Although, the other two are best-sellers in Bangladesh.”
Stryker was released to the market only three months ago, with an exclusive deal with Foodpanda. Since, the early response has been very good, the drinks are now being rolled into local shops, with plans of launching a website where people can order nationwide.
Long considers his brand to be a hybrid of local and foreign drinks. He hopes it will act as a bridge between the two, and raise the standards for healthier consumption in Bangladesh. Long admits that there are many people who still complain about the Tk100 price of his drinks, but he could not make it cheaper without compromising on the health aspect.
“When you are struggling with money, you cannot afford to care about things like this. Even in Germany, a few decades ago, people did not care about healthy drinks because they could barely even afford to pay rent or provide for their families. But as you make a little more money, you need to start thinking about the kinds of unhealthy products you consume every day,” Long claims.
Long believes that once people realise that there is a market for good quality local products at a slightly higher price, it will attract more foreign brands as well.
For the future, Long has plans to bring new products and flavours that are just as fancy and unique, but his goal is to always do so in a healthy way.
“I am planning on sending personal videos to everyone who buys the drinks from the online store that will be available soon. I am here for a mission to make Bangladesh a healthier place, so I have no problem providing a high quality product and going the extra mile to thank people who buy my drinks,” Long said.