No 1 YouTuber in Singapore JianHao Tan defied critics of his endless high school listicle videos; aged 27, he has a business with a staff of 30

With 4.25 million subscribers, Tan Jian Hao is the country’s most popular YouTuber off the back of listicles such as ‘17 Types of Students in an Online Class’

The YouTuber says he never meant to make social media his full-time job, until a client paid him US$11,000 to promote an app in 2014; now he has a staff of 30

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Tan has become Singapore’s most popular YouTuber off the back of listicles like “17 Types of Students in an Online Class”.

Published: 12:15pm, 1 Sep 2020Updated: 12:48pm, 1 Sep 2020

You can get a lot of hate as a YouTuber, even when you’re a popular one – just ask Tan Jian Hao, who runs the channel JianHao Tan.

With 4.25 million subscribers, Tan has become Singapore’s most popular YouTuber off the back of hundreds of well-loved, and sometimes derided, listicle videos. Not that this bothers the 27-year-old much. When you’re making seven figures, haters are probably the last thing on your mind.

“I often see people making fun of influencers. When I started out, people laughed at me and told me it will never be a real job – doing ads, making videos, taking pictures,” says Tan, who made the US business magazine Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in 2015. “Then I saw the same people jump at the chance to do ads and make a living off social media.”

Tan’s channel catapulted him to fame after it was launched in 2010, thanks to its irreverent content for teens. Think features such as “11 Types of People Stuck at Home”, “17 Types of Teachers You’ll Meet In Every Online Class” and “17 Types of Students in an Online Class” – which, despite drawing 9.1 million views since being uploaded in April, lags far behind the channel’s most popular video, “Good Students vs Bad Students”, which has more than 36 million views.

Tan has done so many listicles, particularly about life in high school, that he’s established a cinematic universe within his channel.

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