Clicknetwork

The Clicknetwork hosts pictured in 2017. Photo from Scene.sg.

Clicknetwork is one of Singapore’s most subscribed to YouTube channels, boasting over 1,230,000 subscribers and 373,000,000 views as of February 2020. Having been on YouTube since before 2011, Clicknetwork is considered as one of the pioneering local content creators on the platform. Over the years, Clicknetwork has produced a variety of content, ranging from comedy to lifestyle. Clicknetwork is a subsidiary company of Munkysuperstar Pictures Pte Ltd.

Background

Founder

Clicknetwork's founder and director Gillian Tan. Photo from The Straits Times.

Gillian Tan founded Munkysuperstar Pictures Pte Ltd in 2003 after receiving S$10,000 in capital from her mother. Clicknetwork started out as Gillian’s hobby, propped up by the income generated from the television show producing aspect of Munkysuperstar. Munkysuperstar initially produced television programmes for Mediacorp.

Before founding either of the above companies, Gillian worked as a broadcast assistant at TBWA\Chiat\Day, an advertising company based in San Francisco.

Origins (2007)

Rosalyn Lee (left) and Xiaxue (right) were the hosts of Girls Out Loud - a television programme that was eventually taken off the air.

In 2007, Munkysuperstar Pictures intended to produce a second season of “Girls Out Loud”, a Channel 5 show hosted by Xiaxue (Wendy Cheng) and Rosalyn Lee. However, the programme was cancelled due to public complaints about the show and its supposedly controversial nature.

This setback prompted Gillian to take a road trip with the two hosts where she filmed short videos of the trip and posted these clips online. The videos were well-received and as the demand increased, Gillian created a website where she could publish these videos.

This event was a turning point for Clicknetwork as it began to build its online presence.

Business model

In 2017, founder Gillian Tan shared that Clicknetwork’s content is generated in-house by a small team of 5 full-time producers. These videos are mainly uploaded onto YouTube, where the videos can be monetised. Clicknetwork also produces sponsored content from time to time. That being said, Gillian tries to strike a balance between the channel’s authenticity and financial profitability. She has turned down sponsors on some occasions.

Content Growth

The Clicknetwork team receiving their YouTube Gold Play Button in 2017. Retrieved from The Straits Times.

As of February 2020, Clicknetwork posts their content on their official website, their YouTube channel and their mobile app. Clicknetwork has diversified their content over the years, with a variety of comedy, informative and travelogue style videos under their belt. Their posting frequency has also dwindled over the years. From posting nearly one video every day in 2011, Clicknetwork now posts one video per week on average.

Vimeo

Clicknetwork was on Vimeo for a short while after their first YouTube channel was terminated for seemingly no reason. The channel lost all its videos and subscribers after a video of Xiaxue doing a fishtail braid got flagged - alongside other innocent videos. Clicknetwork returned to YouTube in 2011 after improvements were made on the social media platform.  

As of February 2020, Clicknetwork still posts content on Vimeo.

Clicknetwork.tv

A collage of Clicknetwork's popular series. Photo from ZULA.

Clicknetwork’s first video was published on 23 May 2011, the same day that they joined YouTube. As of February 2020, the channel’s longest-running series is Xiaxue’s Guide to Life, having published 224 episodes since 2011. Their most popular video to date is “Emergency Hacks - Hack It: EP12” with 5.3 million views. A full list of the series produced by Clicknetwork can be found in the table below.

Year	Series	Main Cast	Episodes	Playlists
2019	Rozz Recommends: Season 3	Rosalyn Lee	4	-
	Girl Band Called Girl Band	Roz Pho as Jean Xixi Lim as Pris Munah Bagharib as Debbie Caitanya Tan as Kai	17	Playlist
2018	Daddy Diaries	Shan Wee	10	Playlist
	No Sweat	Tyen Rasif	32 (ongoing)	Playlist
	Rozz Recommends: Season 2	Rosalyn Lee	12	Playlist
2016	Rozz Recommends: Season 1	Rosalyn Lee	13	Playlist
2015	Hype Hunt	Rosalind Pho Jemimah Wei	38	Playlist
2014	Foodporn	Irene Ang	22	Playlist
	Wonder Boys	Paul Twohill Charles Benedict Ng	25	Playlist
	Hack It	Rebecca Tan	108	Playlist
2013	The Click Show	Don Richmond	37	Playlist
	It’s a Date!	Chua Enlai	18	Playlist
2012	In The Backseat	Sara Wee	-	Playlist
	Playlist	-	38	Playlist
	News Asia	Debbie Wong Howard Lo	9	Playlist
	Nudge The Hamster	-	11	Playlist
	That F Word	Andrea Chong Jemimah Wei	41	Playlist
	Girl on Girl	Rosalyn Lee	-	Playlist
2011	Crack Comedy	-	8	Playlist
	Room 101	-	8	Playlist
	Chick vs. Dick	Yan Kay Kay Paul Twohill Gillian Tay	101	Playlist
	Now You Know	Don Richmond	82	Playlist
	Budget Barbie	Bong Qiu Qiu aka Ang Chiew Ting	117	Playlist
	Xiaxue’s Guide To Life	Xiaxue aka Wendy Cheng Yan Yan	224 (ongoing)	Playlist
	Tried and Tested	Oon Shu An	169 (ongoing)	Playlist
	Numbnuts	Mike Braun Hutch	25	Playlist
	Vaunt	Rebecca Tan Arrian North	4	Playlist
2009	The Shan and Rozz Show	Shan Wee Rosalyn Lee	14	Playlist
	Bored in Bikinis	Sonia Krans Gui Xue Sha	9	Playlist

Clicknetwork mobile application

Clicknetwork's app was launched on the Apple Store on 22 June 2014 and was made available on the Google Play Store as well. Clicknetwork releases their videos earlier on their mobile application than on their YouTube channel, as advertised in their videos.

Awards & accolades

YouTube Gold Play Button (2017)

Clicknetwork was the first channel in Singapore to hit 1,000,000 subscribers. In light of this, they were presented with a YouTube Gold Play Button in 2017 at the Google Asia Pacific building.

Controversies

Bored in Bikinis (2009)

The hosts of Bored in Bikinis - Gui Xue Sha (left) and Sonia Krans (right).

Bored in Bikinis, first aired in 2009, had a total of 9 episodes and received criticism from conservative netizens that same year. The common sentiment among these viewers was that the show demeans and sexualises women. The series had been available online since August that year but only drew flak in November. There was no update on the series after the public backlash thereafter.

An interview done with Gillian in 2017 revealed how she felt about the situation then. Contrary to what netizens accused Clicknetwork of, Gillian maintained that:

“[It was] not my intention to sexualise our content.”, and “[she] never intended to attract a male audience with Bored in Bikinis.” 

Xiaxue’s Guide to Life: Kissing a girl (2011)

Xiaxue (left) and Yan Kay Kay (right) pictured in the thumbnail for the controversial video. Photo from Mumbrella Asia.

In 2011, Clicknetwork posted a video of  Xiaxue and Yan Kay Kay kissing. The episode was titled “Xiaxue's Guide to Life: Kissing a girl” and was supposed to be the 56th episode of Xiaxue’s show. The now-deleted video went viral and divided public opinion.

Gillian acknowledged in 2017 that the video was an experiment to catch the internet’s attention. She shared about the video’s ideation process in an interview, where they chanced upon a highly-viewed  YouTube video that simply mentioned the word “lesbians”. From there, the team decided to film that particular episode of Guide To Life. In Gillian’s words:

“[Since] the internet seems to love girls or lesbians, let’s experiment and see whether a video with Wendy kissing Kay Kay would get the internet’s attention”.

Singapore’s Media Development Authority (now Infocomm Media Development Authority) later asked Clicknetwork to remove the video, objecting to the nature of its content. Clicknetwork obliged to their request in December 2011. Xiaxue subsequently posted the same video onto her channel, this time with an age-restricted filter.

Xiaxue later reflected in 2014 that the video opened the floor for discussions about sexual diversity and tolerance in Singapore, which was considered taboo then. She also acknowledged that the video was meant to catch people’s attention. In her own words:

“It was an idea that I knew would provoke a response, and [the MDA’s decision to delete the video] was good for publicity.”

Censorship

Following the 2011 saga involving Xiaxue and Kay Kay, Singapore’s Media Development Authority asked Clicknetwork to censor all the swearing in their videos, which jeopardised the direction and branding of the channel itself as they could potentially lose all their views. Ultimately, both parties reached a compromise and Clicknetwork prefaced their videos with a warning.