Asian Angle | Is Bobby Saputra the hero Southeast Asia needs? A viral parody of privilege, unpacked

More than just a viral sensation, Bobby Saputra exposes deep-seated frustrations among Southeast Asian youth with corruption and inequality

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Ben Sumadiwiria as uber-rich playboy Bobby Saputra. Photo: Ben Sumadiwiria

Published: 10:00am, 22 Jun 2025

Since early 2024, users scrolling through their YouTube or TikTok feeds may have encountered Bobby Saputra, a self-proclaimed Chinese-Indonesian billionaire playboy and “professional son”. He claims his father, William Saputra, is the seventh richest man in Asia and owns highly profitable companies like bottled water giant Danone Aqua.

Bobby’s content has gone viral repeatedly, amassing over 840 million views on YouTube and over a million followers on both YouTube and TikTok, both of which are highly popular among youths and young adults worldwide.

His videos flaunt his family’s mansions, luxury watches, supercars, and even Singaporean domestic helpers, mimicking luxury “flex” influencers showing off affluent lifestyles on social media. He also shares clips of himself giving “charity” to Singaporeans. In his words, “there are not a lot of them [Singaporeans], and they’re actually very poor.”

But all is not what it seems. Bobby himself is a character played by Indonesian content creator Ben Sumadiwiria, known online as “supercoolben”. The luxuries shown on camera are loaned from friends he met during his time as a private chef for wealthy clients, and used solely for filming.

Instead of glorifying excess, Bobby’s absurdity serves to parody the nepotism and corruption perpetuating the generational wealth of Indonesia’s elite. His Singapore skits overturn existing stereotypes about economic disparities between Indonesia and its richer neighbours.

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