The growth of the digital economy has not only changed the way people shop and interact but has also given rise to new, increasingly flexible work models. One such model is that of the affiliate marketer, who earns commissions based on user activity involving product links they share on social media. Many of these affiliate marketers use trending topics or sensational thread titles to attract users’ attention, a practice commonly known as “clickbait.”
This phenomenon prompted five UGM students: Dini Rindang Ekarini (Economics, Class of 2023), Widyastri Prabaningrum (Communication Studies, Class of 2024), Nayla Devira Cahyani (Communication Studies, Class of 2024), Rizki Laidha Putri (Law, Class of 2024), and Upik Maulia (Social Development and Welfare, Class of 2023) to conduct a study titled “The Price of a Click: Clickbait Practices in Affiliate Content on App X as an Economic Consequence of Attention in the Gig Economy.” The research was conducted under the supervision of Mashita Phitaloka Fandia Purwaningtyas, S.I.P., M.A., through the 2026 Student Creativity Program in Social and Humanities Research (PKM-RSH).
Dini and her colleagues on the PKM-RSH Clickbait team were motivated to conduct this research by their frustration while scrolling through social media, particularly X. They came across threads that caught their attention. However, upon clicking through, they discovered these threads contained affiliate links.
“It was frustrating when I wanted to read and learn about the news, only to find that the content didn’t match my expectations, so my team and I became interested in understanding this practice from both the clickbait creators’ and the audience’s perspectives,” explained Dini on Friday (September 11, 2025) at the Faculty of Economics and Business, UGM.
They examined how clickbait is used in affiliate content on the X platform, how the audience responds to such content, and how platform governance can help control clickbait-based affiliate practices. The survey results showed that the majority of the audience found affiliate clickbait content annoying, although this response was more often expressed as frustration.
Interestingly, the audience also tended to be uninterested in clicking on affiliate links when the content used clickbait. Conversely, affiliate content without clickbait actually encouraged the audience to click on the shared links.
In addition to a questionnaire-based survey, this study included content analysis and interviews with relevant institutions to examine affiliate clickbait practices and aspects of platform governance. By combining these audience and governance perspectives, the team sought to view affiliate practices not only as a digital marketing strategy but also as part of the dynamics of the gig and attention economies.
Dini and the team hope this study on the gig economy and the attention economy offers a more critical perspective on the development of digital work. Additionally, the research is expected to contribute to raising user awareness of affiliate content and to encourage the development of platform governance mechanisms that better protect the quality of the digital space.
Source: PKM-RSH Clickbait Team
Editor: Kurnia Ekaptiningrum
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