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Village YouTuber gains over 1 million subs: Neighbors believe he made deal with devil
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All of Siboen’s 10 channels have been awarded the prestigious YouTube Silver Play Button, with “Siboen Chanel” achieving the Golden Play Button. (Kompas.com/WILIBRORDUS MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO)
S
iswanto is a YouTuber from Kasegeran village in Central Java who has gained over a million subscribers to his YouTube channel since launching it in 2017. But his internet popularity has resulted in wild accusations from the local community.
Siboen Chanel focuses on a variety of topics, including Siswanto’s love of working on motorcycles, interviews with successful SME owners around the area and insights from his daily life. The 38-year-old also runs 10 other YouTube channels, which focus on everything from horror to culinary themes. He claims to generate a monthly revenue of between Rp 50 million and 150 million.
This has aroused suspicion from residents of his small village.
“In my village, some people assumed I was using black magic to make myself rich. After all, I only work at a small repair shop. How could I buy a house as expensive as this? My house costs Rp 450 million!” Siboen told detikINET.
Instead of worrying about the accusations, Siswanto went about turning his village into a “YouTuber Village''. As a mentor, Siboen teaches unemployed villagers and small-scale traders how to become YouTubers.
The head of Kasegeran village, Saeffudin, told Tribun News that "We encourage facilitating a YouTuber village. We are proposing that Siboen be the head of BMUDEs (Village-Owned Enterprises) in hopes that there will be [a positive] economic effect.”
It wasn’t smooth sailing, however, and as the number of students grew, neighbors begun thinking that Siswanto was setting up a terrorist cell.
“Kasegeran village is still largely uninformed [about the internet]. I explained at [a] village meeting hall about YouTube – any video [anyone makes] can become content," he said.
