S'porean influencer JianHao Tan takes part in global live commerce reality show competition in Korea

Singapore's Creators on a Global Stage

JianHao Tan and his wife Debbie Soon are flying the Singapore-Malaysia flag on ENA's "X The League", a reality show that the network bills as the world's first global live commerce championship. The pair lead a four-person team that also includes Malaysian creators Elle Onni and Sonia Chang. For Tan, one of Singapore's most-followed YouTubers, the appearance marks a step from local content creation onto a multinational entertainment platform.

The format places eight teams — representing Singapore-Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, China and the United States — against one another in live-selling challenges. Performance is judged on audience engagement and sales, with a US$500,000 (around S$640,657) grand prize on the line. According to The Straits Times, the Singapore-Malaysia team is backed by Gushcloud International, which handles the team's live-selling strategy, cross-border creator collaborations and overall competitive execution.

The Mechanics of Live Commerce Competition

"X The League" premiered on ENA and Netflix Korea on Aug. 2, hosted by Thai rapper BamBam of Got7 and Korean-American singer Tiffany Young of Girls' Generation. The competition frames live-stream selling as a sport, with measurable sales outcomes serving as the scoreboard. Both Tan and Soon described the experience as gruelling. Tan called it "without a doubt, one of the most intense things I've ever been through", while Soon admitted she was initially reluctant to join.

The Singapore-Malaysia pairing reflects a deliberate cross-border strategy rather than a one-country team. Combining the two markets expands the potential audience and product sourcing pool, a practical consideration for live commerce where regional reach often determines sales ceiling. The team's structure — two Singaporean creators alongside two Malaysian ones — is unusual for such formats and underscores how Southeast Asian creator markets are increasingly treated as a single commercial bloc.

What Gushcloud's Backing Signals

Gushcloud International's involvement is the most strategically significant detail in the report. The Singapore-based creator management and licensing firm is providing infrastructure typically absent when individual creators attempt such ventures alone: product pipelines, cross-border logistics, performance strategy and post-show monetisation planning. According to The Straits Times, the company is overseeing the Singapore-Malaysia team's full competitive execution.

For Singapore's wider creator economy, the bet is straightforward — that a strong showing on a global platform translates into long-term commercial leverage at home. The risk is the inverse: that a modest result would expose the limits of the regional creator model when stacked against bigger single-country markets like South Korea, China and the United States.