Social media star Nas famed for his 1-minute travel videos draws a crowd in Singapore

A Palestinian-Israeli Harvard graduate has been travelling the world for 865 days, documenting experiences in different countries and uploading a 1-minute video to his Facebook channel every day.

The social media star has about 7.6 million followers on Facebook and often gets over a million views for his videos.

Mr Nuseir Yassin, 26, the man behind the popular channel Nas Daily, has pledged to rack up 1,000 days on the road - telling the stories of people in various places, including Singapore.

Singapore has certainly struck a chord with Mr Yassin, who avoids making videos about the "touristy" aspects of countries or delving into political issues.

He rattled off a list of highlights, including Kampung Lorong Buangkok, the high Certificate of Entitlement prices for cars and ministerial salaries.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/nasdaily/videos/745456938939794/[/embed]

Mr Yassin has been to Singapore five times - previously only transiting in the airport - but decided to stay for a week while applying for a visa to Indonesia.

Yesterday, he hosted his largest spontaneous meet-up with his online followers, attracting at least 700 people to an area outside the Singapore Indoor Stadium on just a day's notice.

Mr Yassin, who does not generally apply for permits in advance for gatherings, wanted to host it at Esplanade Park before eventually getting permission to do so at the Singapore Sports Hub instead. He answered questions for 90 minutes about himself and asked the crowd about their country.

"I think a lot of people confuse what we do with fame or wanting fame... which is not necessarily true," he said.

Rather, what keeps him going are the friendships he has made along the way.

Mr Yassin goes by the moniker "Nas", which means "people" in Arabic, and stresses that he is not making videos for the money.

"If I can change an opinion, that's all I want," he told The Straits Times. For example, some people may be afraid of visiting Turkey because they consider it dangerous.

He said: "If I can change one person's opinion about Turkey being dangerous, I'm happy."

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-AItKTidfI[/embed]

Among his most-watched productions is one on the shrinking of the Dead Sea, which was watched close to 70 million times on Facebook.

Realising a few years ago that he had lived close to a third of his life with many more things he still wanted to do, Mr Yassin saved US$60,000 (S$82,000) before quitting his US$120,000 a year software engineering job in the US, where he worked for mobile payment service Venmo.

He said he hopes to start a media company of his own after his 1,000-day odyssey ends.

Mr Yassin gets US$80,000 a month now - half from Facebook advertisements and the rest from brand deals.

He avoids making videos about politics or the "touristy" aspects of countries.

Topics he found interesting as he researched the Singapore video included Kampung Lorong Buangkok, the high COE prices for cars, the World Toilet Organisation, founded here, and ministerial salaries.

His video on Singapore will air online today.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/nasdaily/videos/280150162816399/[/embed]

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.