Sunday, 12 Jan 2020 07:48 AM MYT
So far, she has put up 29 videos showing her putting together her study notes, tidying up her desk, giving tips on how to have better handwriting, as well as her travel vlogs, among other things — all without showing her face. Speaking to TODAY at a cafe after school earlier this week, she said her interest lies in science. “YouTube is a place where I relax during study breaks, get views and have fun, but I don’t take it as a career,” she added.
In second spot was the five-man sports crew, known as Dude Perfect, which specialises in intricate trick shots. They made US$20 million. Nevertheless, Tan Jianhao, 26, is regarded as Singapore’s top YouTuber with 3.8 million subscribers to his channel. The chief executive officer and founder of Titan Digital Media reportedly earns a six-figure sum annually although industry observers believe the amount to be higher.
According to industry players, the “Big Four” of Singapore’s YouTube industry are Titan Digital Media, NOC, Wah!Banana, and Clicknetwork. Among the Big Four, Tan Jianhao leads the pack, charging S$38,000 for branded content and S$20,000 for a vlog in 2018 when he had 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube, according to his June 2018 rate card seen by TODAY.
The September 2019 rate card also showed that Tan Jianhao’s five-year-old dog, a Pomeranian called BunCha, commanded rates of S$2,500 per video and S$1,200 per photo on Instagram. BunCha’s account, babybuncha, currently has about 132,000 followers.NOC co-founder Sylvia Chan, 32, said she has to be more selective with clients as her firm’s YouTube channel — which has about 967,000 subscribers — receives 50 to 150 enquiries a week.
“There was no money in this industry,” said Chan. “There were a couple of years where I just earned a few thousand dollars a year. A lot of people would have given up by then, but for us, I thought as long as we are not that poor we were not in debt, and you are doing something that you love, it is okay.”For NOC, 2018 was a standout year where its revenue grew five to 10 times, said Chan.
Over at Wah!Banana, which has more than one million subscribers, co-founder and producer Xiong Lingyi told TODAY that the channel’s revenue grew by 50 per cent last year, and its clientele has grown beyond consumer goods companies.Xiong, 31, said: “We are not known for having great production value, but we are very, very fast.”
They include TheSmartLocal and SGAG’s Nubbad TV, which have about 264,000 and 72,300 subscribers respectively.In 2018, it started producing a risque online talk show Real Talk, which helped its Millennials of Singapore channel grow rapidly. One of Real Talk’s latest and biggest clients is ride-hailing company Grab, which sponsored an episode where the co-hosts discussed their relationship with parents.
“I thought it was S$5,000 for the whole project but when they say S$5,000 per video, I went like ‘Huh!’,” he said. Today, his channel has more than 70,000 subscribers and he charges about S$2,000 for a video.The success of some of Singapore’s top YouTubers has recently been attracting criticism of their content.
Tan Jianhao also posted a series of Instagram stories in response. Defending his heavy use of listicles, he said: “This is YouTube. I am not going to spend weeks on a video then leave it there and hope nobody watches lol.” Still, at least two YouTubers whom TODAY spoke to admitted that the use of eye candy is a deliberate strategy in the industry to optimise view counts.
“It will breed a very predatory kind of culture... It makes it look like it’s okay to use women’s bodies for clickbait and for boys to think of girls like that,” she said. “The dynamics are such that if someone helped me before the last time and I forgot about them after I got famous, they will talk behind my back and say: ‘So you are doing your own thing now?’” he said. “There’s the unsaid thing of how you better pay your respects and kiss the ring.”
Some YouTube commercial can be mendacious!