A trivial kerfuffle erupted over Twitter over the long weekend, with much ado over nothing: the quality of videos put out by Singapore’s most lucrative YouTuber, Tan Jianhao. 

Love or hate his videos, you can’t deny that the 26-year-old knows what’s good for business. With 4.1 million subscribers on his personal YouTube account and hundreds of thousands more through other channels under his company Titan Digital media, Tan has built a vlogging empire that earns a six-figure sum (at least) annually. 

But even Titans bleed, and all it took to puncture Tan’s exterior was a tweet that didn’t even mention his name nor his company. At most, it was a generic criticism of the local YouTuber landscape. 

are singaporean youtubers not tired of the same secondary school content from 2013???????? damn

— aj (@JEDD1E) May 2, 2020

Perhaps the trigger was pulled in the subsequent replies on the offhand tweet by @JEDD1E on Saturday (May 2) — a torrent of shade thrown at local YouTubers whose comedy shtick has remained pretty much the same for years. Though the original tweet made no mention to Tan at all, the replies posted by other Twitter users were pretty clear about who they thought deserved the condemnation. 

It was about a day later (May 3) that Tan chimed in with his thoughts. Going hard in his defence about the choice of content he makes, Singapore’s most prominent YouTuber unleashed a whole series of tweets that made sure to point out that the path he chose enabled him to garner over 4 million subscribers. 

This is also the same group of people who say “Singaporean YouTubers only do types of listicals” but don’t watch anything else we upload lol https://t.co/Okbme85Aoe

— JianHao F² Tan (@thejianhaotan) May 2, 2020

And I didn’t get to where I am today by getting hurt by little salty comments from haters who can’t help but to rip on my content cuz they can’t understand why so many people love it.

— JianHao F² Tan (@thejianhaotan) May 2, 2020

I don’t wanna start a war. I want to say I can sorta understand why some would think we do the same kind of content and I don’t blame them. Because the titles are similar. Types of something. It’s a format. I’m on YouTube k? I promise if I was on Vimeo I’d name it different

— JianHao F² Tan (@thejianhaotan) May 2, 2020

There was some bragging involved of course.

So if you really have a problem with my videos, just don’t watch it. I can’t help that I’m trending all the time or that everyone talks about me it’s really not something I can control ??

— JianHao F² Tan (@thejianhaotan) May 2, 2020

The whole thing went beyond the Twitter platform too with Tan taking the spectacle onto Instagram Stories. 

Par for the course for any internet drama, the offended party retweeted messages of support. Which isn’t a problem, considering the massive online fanbase that Tan holds.

Local meme pages jumped in with their own takes on the affair. 

But perhaps a crucial point of view belongs to another Singaporean YouTuber sneakysushii, whose commentary from 10 months ago is as relatable as it was last year (and the many years prior during the reign of X types of Y content). 

“I do think there is something lacking in the YouTube scene in Singapore," he remarked.

"But I kinda get it — the bigger creators in Singapore have found what works for them and they are just doing what puts money in their rice bowls.”

ilyas@asiaone.com

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