Johann’s story is not unique. The largest concern regarding YouTube channels has been funding.

There’s a vast digital graveyard of amateurs who have tried and failed to do anything beyond a video or two. But even sustained efforts don’t manage to last. Johann alerts me to Inconvenient Questions, a sociopolitical channel led by former Nominated Member of Parliament Viswa Sadasivan. It ran for a year and a half, hosting a massive repository of 286 videos and interviewed Singaporeans from all walks of life. Their last video was a 51 minute special with Tan Cheng Bock. It has since been discontinued due to a lack of funding.

It puts into perspective the amount of money mainstream SGYT channels generate in order to refinance their videos in kind, given how resource intensive the industry is.

Johann recounts an incident seeing DeeKosh and other YouTubers filming at a hawker center he was at. “They had a professional set-up with all these big rigs and heavy equipment. Just for a food review video!”

While trying to divine why channels like his aren’t getting traction, I mention his conspicuous lack of presence on social media.

“I had a bad experience when Friendster was still a thing. There’s all this quid-pro-quo going on and I want to be mindful with how I spend my time. So I’m very against having to put on this online facade.”

The sentiment is easily understood, to unplug and disconnect to connect. But in this cut-throat media economy, you’ve got to at least try to be on the ball. I reactivated all my accounts since I got this gig because you never know which avenue of communication you need.

With this in mind, I ask him how he cultivates and manages his community.

“I don’t really have one, because there’s not much engagement. There’s views and likes but I can’t gain any feedback or start a conversation with those metrics, and what few comments there are tend to be… controversial.”

Johann simmers with frustration. “YouTube doesn’t even allow me to allow me to post a message to my subscribers because I need 1000!”

He’s hovering around the 800 mark.

Despite Sad Coffee’s bleak future, Johann is optimistic about SGYT as a whole.

“I’d like to think there is demand for such content. It’s my failure that the videos aren’t stimulating enough. Still, YouTube is not an appealing proposition,” he concludes. “You risk your reputation, criticism, and your livelihood with no guaranteed payment. It’s very tough for a working adult to break in.”

There’s a twinkle in Johann’s eyes as he pauses. “But the youth could.”

He talks about how being unshackled from the obligations of adulthood frees up youth to tinker with the video format and put themselves out there to attract an audience.

After all, if there’s any demographic as malleable and idealistic enough, it’s them. Dreamers who have the fortitude to cut through the YouTube algorithm that enforces the establishment of voices and aids the accretion of power that edges everyone out. Almost any rival social media platform would be dead upon arrival, given how ensconced the big names are in our public consciousness. Nobody who’s done the cost-benefit analysis would bother trying, and the fear is that soon our content will go down the same route.

But there might be a kid in their college dormitory, with nothing but their wits, a smartphone, and an idea. And who knows what history will say?