20 Best Instagram Influencers in Malaysia in 2027
The most watched brand post on this list is a sunscreen ad that looks nothing like a sunscreen ad. Joseph Lee shot a chaotic lifestyle skit for Kiehl’s, left out every convention of the beauty format, and the comments thanked him for an ad they actually enjoyed. That is the clearest signal I have about what Instagram creator content in Malaysia looks like going into 2027.
I went through the recent brand work of twenty Malaysian creators to build this list, and a few patterns kept repeating. The skit has become the default ad unit. Comedy creators now carry drones, smartphones, robot vacuums, ice cream and sunscreen, and the hardware brands in particular have stopped buying tech reviewers and started buying personalities. Carousels have not died; they have specialised. Fashion and luxury still run on stills, and a carousel at 2K likes is doing a different job from a Reel at 2M views, which matters when you set KPIs. Mandarin-language Malaysian creators are quietly working as a bridge into Taiwan, Singapore and China, and several of the creators here now run second accounts, which changes the brief before you write it. Roughly a quarter of the people on this list also own a brand of their own, so you are often negotiating with a founder who knows exactly what a sponsored post costs to make.
That last point is the counter-thinker read on Malaysia. Most brands still shop this market by follower count. What the strongest posts here have in common is that the product arrives inside something the creator was already going to make: a running routine, a trip to Melbourne, a laundry skit with a toddler. When you brief for that, the view counts follow.
20 Best Instagram Influencers in Malaysia
1. May Ho
2. Qiu Wen
4. Jane Chuck
5. Eyka Farhana
7. Chang Yong
9. Yvonne Chua
10. Shi Qi
11. Michiyo Ho
12. Jestinna Kuan
13. Michie Lam
15. Danny Koo
16. Joseph Lee
18. Ling Tai Yong
19. Chan Phei Yong
20. Kar Yan
1. May Ho
Followers: 602K
Apple does not hand its Hello Apple account to many creators, and when it picked a Malaysian one it picked May Ho. Her post for the iPhone 18 Pro is a transition video built around the colour range, nothing more. The colours are the script. The comments did what Apple needed: people arguing over which shade suits her and which one they would buy, which is intent, not applause. At 620K views on a 602K account, the post travelled well beyond her followers.
She posts in Chinese across travel, fashion and lifestyle, and she keeps two homes. The main account is cinematic and curated; @lifeissomayho is where the unfiltered day-to-day goes. If you brief her, decide which account you are buying before you decide what you are buying. The polished one is where Apple went. The casual one is where a product looks lived with.
2. Qiu Wen
Followers: 913K
Qiu Wen’s feed is soft and precise, but the videos underneath it are where she talks about self-worth, anxiety and raising a toddler. That contrast is why her audience trusts her when she recommends something.
For Malaysia’s first SK-II concept store she went with a carousel: the product line, the skin analysis booth, and a few frames with other beauty creators she clearly knows. It read as an afternoon out rather than a store opening, which is what a concept store launch should feel like. She posts primarily in Chinese and picks up a secondary audience in Chinese-speaking markets, which is useful if the store launch is one of several across the region.
3. Christinna Kuan
Followers: 971K
The Dior Reel opens with a question Christinna asks herself while getting ready in Melbourne: how do you notice that you miss someone? She works through it for a while before Miss Dior EDP appears, and when it does, it arrives as the answer. Scent is memory. The product has a reason to be in the video, and the 145K views came from people watching a thought, not a bottle.
Almost ten years in, she has moved from blogging to a brand of her own across Instagram and YouTube, founding creative and jewellery businesses along the way, and the entrepreneur storyline is as much a part of her feed as the fashion. The family material, mostly scenes with her sister Jestinna, keeps the high-fashion content from floating off. For a fragrance or luxury brief, give her the emotional premise and let her find the product’s place in it. She did it here without being told, as far as I can tell.
4. Jane Chuck
Followers: 608K
Jane Lau, known online as Jane Chuck, runs two brands of her own, Chuck’s and Motherchuckers, so when she styles a Longchamp look from head to toe she is doing it as someone who sells clothes for a living. The Reel follows her around Melbourne with the Cadence bag doing most of the work, and 106K views with 3.3K likes is a healthy ratio for a styling piece.
Her feed mixes fashion with family travel, a house build in progress and motherhood. The lesson from the Longchamp post is that a full-look styling Reel on a founder-creator lands differently from the same Reel on a model: she is showing how she would wear it, not how it is meant to be worn.
5. Eyka Farhana
Followers: 1.9M
Eyka is an actress and singer first, and her Instagram runs on glam and high-end styling with everyday makeup, casual vlogs and wellness routines in between. Regional and international brands have used her as a muse for a reason: she can carry a campaign image on her own.
The Uniqlo fall and winter carousel is the example to study for KPIs. A few thousand likes on a 1.9M account looks thin next to the Reels elsewhere on this list, and it is not thin at all. A carousel of a seasonal collection is a catalogue, and catalogues get saved and tapped through, not liked. If you buy her for stills, measure saves and product taps, not likes.
6. Wen Shu Sen (溫舒森)
Followers: 807K
Samsung gave the Galaxy Z Fold8 to a fashion founder and let her show a working day. Shu Sen runs the clothing brand Dmeow, and the Reel is her routine with the phone folded into it, in both senses. The 243K views came from people who follow her for the brand-building and the introspective posts on growth and relationships, and the comments were about the homey style of the video as much as the device.
For a hardware brand this is the move I would copy: a founder with a visible business, a day that would exist without you, and your product doing jobs inside it.
7. Chang Yong
Followers: 1M
Chang Yong co-founded Dmeow with Shu Sen, and the two of them are a couple-content pillar in their own right: travel, daily banter, the kind of low-stakes bickering audiences return for. His own feed is comedy and reality-style skits.
Antigravity and Insta360 used him to launch the Antigravity A1, a 360-degree consumer drone, which is a product most people assume needs a gadget channel. The Reel passed 1M views, and the comments split in a way the brand should frame: half entertained by him, half asking about the scenery shots the drone captured. That second half is the drone selling itself. Tech brands in Malaysia have worked this out, and it is why so much hardware on this list sits with comedians.
8. Miko Wong Jie Kee
Followers: 1M
Miko’s Proya video is a running video. She talks about her running routine, the sun exposure that comes with it, and how she uses the essence to repair her skin barrier afterwards. Skincare appears as a consequence of the sport, which is why 839K people watched it and why the comments were people describing their own skin and their own experience with the product. That is the comment type I look for. Peers comparing notes.
She is a model with a fitness and travel feed, often called the “Malaysian Puff Kuo” for her resemblance to the Taiwanese star, and she talks openly about her physical and mental struggles in a conversational register. The openness is the asset. A skincare brief that gives her a real problem to solve will outperform one that gives her a product to hold.
9. Yvonne Chua
Followers: 531K
A laundry detergent skit with her daughter in it, 116K views, and comments about the product quality rather than the child. That is the DAIA Smart Softergent post, and it is the household-category template for Malaysia in one Reel.
Yvonne built her audience on the move from youth to motherhood, with clean visuals and plain storytelling about parenting and adulting. She has co-founded community projects including family festivals, so her presence is offline too. FMCG brands should note how little the DAIA Reel asks of her: one domestic problem, one product, her daughter as the reason the problem exists.
10. Shi Qi
Followers: 1.2M
Shi Qi is a former educator turned entrepreneur, and her main feed is relatable moments turned into small stories about ageing, emotional maturity and relationships. Nothing is styled. The teaching life lives on a second account, @msqiwiie, where she captures the comedic side of the classroom.
Dreame put the X60 Ultra Extreme into a skit with her partner Lilzquan, and the result, 434K views and a comment section asking about the vacuum, shows what the robot-cleaner category has learnt: the demo is more watchable as an argument between two people about who cleans. If you need the teacher persona for an education or parenting brief, that is the other account, and it should be a separate conversation.
11. Michiyo Ho
Followers: 1.3M
Michiyo started as a viral internet personality and rebuilt herself as a premium creator with high-fashion looks and a fitness lifestyle, with a Chinese-speaking audience that reaches beyond Malaysia. The captions and videos stay playful, which keeps the polish from reading cold.
The COSRX Reel is a two-panel format, day routine on one side and night routine on the other, with the PDRN product in both. It did 202K views, and the comment I would quote to a client is the one asking her to make more videos in this style. Audiences telling a creator they want more of a sponsored format is rare and worth more than the view count.
12. Jestinna Kuan
Followers: 955K
Jestinna calls herself a “Pharmasis” in her bio, a nod to her pharmacy degree, and the educational posts that come with that have become her trust layer. Family content, lifestyle content and her own wellness brand, Chubee, sit on top of it.
The DON DON DONKI Malaysia collaboration was an unboxing of the Hello Kitty x Jisoo collection, 565K views, with the comments mostly people saying they wanted it. For a retailer with a limited drop, that is the right creator and the right format: the excitement is hers, and the scarcity does the rest.
13. Michie Lam
Followers: 522K
Michie’s CHT Reel is a Malaysian creator in Taiwan explaining how the carrier’s 5G and free Wi-Fi hotspots made the trip easier, and the comments were Taiwanese followers excited that she had arrived. The number on it, 279K likes on a 522K account, is one of the densest engagement ratios on this list.
That tells you what she is for. Her travel diary series and fashion posts do the reach, her openness about anxiety and body image does the loyalty, and her Chinese-speaking audience makes her a cross-border buy for a Taiwanese or Singaporean brand that wants a Malaysian face with a local following on both ends.
14. Khairul Amin Kamarulzaman
Followers: 4.5M
Khairul is the biggest account on this list and the one I would brief with the most care. A celebrity chef with a factory of his own, cinematic recipe Reels, and a comment section that talks back to him. That last part is unusual at 4.5M followers.
The MONTIGO partnership was a run of short drink recipes, hot and cold, made to live in the brand’s bottles. It passed 2.1M views, and the comments were banter with Khairul rather than reactions to the product, which is exactly how a drinkware brand should want to be seen: as part of a routine people already enjoy watching. If you want the recipe format, the product has to be something a recipe can use.
15. Danny Koo
Followers: 653K
Danny is a singer-songwriter with a sunny feed of music, fashion, travel and candid family and career posts. He also splits himself across three accounts: the main one, @lifedboy for daily vlogs, and @dannyeiiichu for interior design.
The BOLON Eyewear post is a photo and video set from Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week, and at 2.5K likes it is a stills post doing a stills job. Eyewear at fashion week is a credibility placement; measure it as one.
16. Joseph Lee
Followers: 684K
This is the Kiehl’s post from the top of the article. Joseph builds parodies and skits around Malaysian and wider Southeast Asian cultural tropes, runs the coffee brand Aistru Coffee, and keeps the longer interview and lifestyle work on @thejobrosephshow. For Kiehl’s sunscreen he dropped every convention of the beauty ad and shot an unhinged lifestyle skit instead. 2.7M views, and the comments were about the ad being good to watch.
I’d take that outcome over a technically perfect beauty Reel every time, with one condition. The brand has to approve a script it would never have written. Kiehl’s did, and the reward was a sunscreen that reached four times his follower count.
17. Lay Kar Heng (K-Lao)
Followers: 549K
K-Lao came up through the comedy group 低清 (Dissy), and the self-deprecating micro-vlog is his unit: daily life, gadgets, travel. The Nestlé Thai Milk Tea Ice Cream Reel starts as a rant about missing Thailand, escalates into the obsession taking over his routine, and resolves with the ice cream as the cure that does not require a flight. 439K views, comments about being entertained.
Structurally that is a three-act skit with the product as the resolution, and it is the shape to ask for when a food brand has a single flavour story to tell.
18. Ling Tai Yong
Followers: 484K
Ling was one of the first Malaysian YouTubers, and his Instagram now carries the reflective posts about that career alongside high-end travel Reels and photography tips. Mastercard’s #ChinaTakesMastercard Reel was shot largely from his point of view, cycling through China with his fiancée Nikki, with the card’s acceptance folded into the ride. 228K views, and the comments were followers trading their own China travel tips.
When a payments brand gets a comment section full of itinerary advice, the campaign has become useful. That is the bar for travel-adjacent finance work, and his first-person camera is why it cleared it.
19. Chan Phei Yong
Followers: 1.1M
The Rimowa carousel’s caption complains that his followers push him to release new episodes faster than his own mother pushes him to get married. The comments were people threatening and bargaining with him for the next episode, 50K likes worth of them, and the suitcase got shown from every angle in the meantime.
Phei Yong started as a radio DJ and now works as a producer, with travel and fashion content around it. His nickname, Hei Pi Ge, reads as “dark-skinned brother” and doubles as a pun on “happy”, which fits the energy. For luxury luggage that is the ideal setup: a jet-setting creator whose audience is impatient for the next trip.
20. Kar Yan
Followers: 218K
The smallest account on the list and one of the fastest-moving posts on it. Kar Yan’s hands-on Reel for the Huawei Pura X View passed 1M views in a week, and the detail that did it was a fact rather than a feature: the phone had already sold out across China. The comments turned into a discussion about whether and when it would be available, which is demand.
She started as a tech video host and now runs a tech feed built on plain language and a peer-next-door tone in a category that usually talks down. For a hardware launch that needs explaining rather than glamour, she is the one creator on this list to brief first.
Final Thoughts
Two numbers from this list belong side by side: Joseph Lee’s 2.7M views on 684K followers, and Eyka Farhana’s few thousand likes on 1.9M. Both posts worked. One is a Reel built as entertainment and measured in reach; the other is a carousel built as a catalogue and measured in saves. The mistake I see brands make in Malaysia is buying the second with the expectations of the first, then concluding Instagram does not perform.
The honest trade-off in this list is language. Close to half of these creators post mainly in Chinese, which is an advantage for Mandarin-speaking segments at home and for Taiwan, Singapore and China, and a reach ceiling for a Malay-first mass market campaign. Neither is a flaw; they are different buys, and the brief should say which one it is. Our Malaysia digital marketing strategies article covers how festive windows split along the same lines.
What I will be watching in 2027 is whether the skit keeps its position as the default ad unit for hardware, or whether the drone and phone brands move back toward demonstration as the category gets crowded with comedians. My bet is that the format stays and the briefs get sharper: a real routine, one product, one problem it solves. Every post above that cleared a million views was built that way.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which of these creators should I brief first for a hardware launch?
Kar Yan if the product needs explaining, Chang Yong or Wen Shu Sen if it needs a personality. Kar Yan’s Huawei Pura X View Reel passed 1M views in a week on a 218K account, and the comments turned into a discussion about availability. Chang Yong’s Antigravity A1 drone Reel and Shu Sen’s Galaxy Z Fold8 Reel show the other route: a comedian or a founder with a routine your product can sit inside. Hardware brands in Malaysia have largely stopped buying tech reviewers and started buying personalities, and the view counts on this list explain why.
Why does a 1.9M follower account only get a few thousand likes on a campaign post?
Because it was a carousel doing a catalogue’s job. Eyka Farhana’s Uniqlo fall and winter carousel is the example I use: a seasonal collection in stills gets saved and tapped through, not liked. Set a Reel KPI on a carousel and you will conclude Instagram does not perform in Malaysia. Measure stills by saves and product taps, and measure Reels by reach. Joseph Lee’s Kiehl’s skit at 2.7M views and Eyka’s carousel both worked; they were built for different jobs.
Should I worry that so many of these creators post in Chinese?
Decide which market you are buying, then it stops being a worry. Close to half the list posts mainly in Chinese, which gives you Mandarin-speaking Malaysians plus a bridge into Taiwan, Singapore and China. Michie Lam’s CHT Reel drew Taiwanese followers excited that she had arrived; Qiu Wen and Michiyo Ho carry Chinese-speaking audiences beyond Malaysia. For a Malay-first mass campaign, that is a reach ceiling and you would brief differently. Neither is a flaw. The brief should say which buy it is.
Several creators here run second accounts. Does that change the brief?
Yes, before you write it. May Ho keeps a cinematic main account and a casual one, @lifeissomayho, and Apple went to the polished one. Shi Qi’s teaching persona lives on @msqiwiie, separate from her relationship-and-life main feed. Danny Koo splits vlogs and interior design across two further accounts. Pick the account that matches what you want the product to look like, polished or lived with, and treat the other account as a separate conversation with its own rate.
What do the posts that cleared a million views have in common?
A real routine, one product, one problem it solves. Miko Wong’s Proya video is a running video where skincare arrives as a consequence of sun exposure, 839K views and comments from peers comparing skin. Khairul Aming’s MONTIGO recipes, Chang Yong’s drone Reel, Joseph Lee’s Kiehl’s skit and Kar Yan’s Huawei Reel all passed a million, and none of them opened with the product. Brief for the thing the creator was already going to make, and let the product find its place in it.
