Live streaming obsession is growing in China

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China's live streaming platforms raised more than 10 billion yuan (1.5 billion US dollars) in the first half of 2017, according to a new report by China Academy of Information and Communications (CAICT).

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Live streaming was not available in China until a few years ago, but the country has embraced it as its own. The live streaming sector has attracted a lot of people from various walks of life.

"Streaming creates equality. There are fewer pretenders in this world. Even big movie stars look like ordinary people on the streams," Beijing-based former card game live streamer who wanted to only be identified by his username Daddy Rock told CGTN Digital. "It enables people to look into the core of many things. I think that's what we want for the future."

Live streams in China have gone from nerd fringe to mainstream, with more than 200 million of China’s 730 million Internet users watching on at least 1 of 200 Chinese apps, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Viewers are transforming the economy with beans, hearts, and red envelopes; Credit Suisse Group AG estimates that all of the virtual thumbs-up, plus product sales spurred by promos, will total almost five billion US dollars this year, up from about 750 million US dollars in 2014. According to a report by Huachuang Securities, China's live streaming sector is expected to be worth 15.9 billion US dollars by 2020.

Selling virtual gifts, membership, advertising, online retailing and cooperating with online games have become each platforms' way of making a profit. But not all live stream broadcasters are people looking to cash in or aspiring celebrities hoping for their big break at stardom.

So who are they?

Daddy Rock said he was running a small company in 2014 when he first heard of webcasting. He said he found it better than traditional television broadcasting, so he decided to try it out.

"At first I did it using my spare time," Daddy Rock said. "But in 2015 my company was running by itself so I put more time on my video stream."

He said maintaining followers is hard. "When things got good I could have more than a thousand people watching," Daddy Rock said. “But during a non-busy time, I might have only a dozen people."

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In Shenzen, Andy, a former streamer who only wanted his first name used, said he started using live streaming to communicate with fellow gamers. "Web games don't usually have a great user interface. So most people talk through integrated chat, which is based on text and poor quality video," he said. "I created a webcast to let people see how exactly I played the game. With this, I didn't have to explain a lot to people. I can just say "watch my stream, and you'll see."

For love or money

Andy, who is no longer streaming, said while he knows there is money to make from live streaming, he did not want to deal with a headache.

"I never got the money because the streaming platform required me to hand off my personal information," he said. "And the process was too complicated. I didn't like that, so I just quit."

"I didn't want to make money from doing it," Daddy Rock said. "What I wanted was fulfilling my curiosity. It's an interesting thing to do."

Rising Star

While neither of these former streamers has bigger streaming ambitions, Tangshan Zhao Longer, a streamer we spoke with from Tangshan in northeastern Hebei Province, north China does have loftier goals. "I like to shoot funny videos," he said. "I also want to have my own movies."

Live streamer, Tangshan Zhao Longer has a following of over 140,000 fans and has bigger ambitions of taking his talents mainstream. Courtesy: Tangshan Zhao Longer

Longer, who owns an antique shop, has more than 140,000 fans following his humorous live stream antics. "I love it," he said. "I like to shoot some funny jokes."

He's even planning to take his show on the road. Longer said he is in talks with an Australian television network about an appearance.

But live streaming is not all fun and games.

China’s live streaming crackdown

Earlier this summer, China’s Ministry of Culture cracked down on 30 live streaming apps. The government said it’s also banned more than 2,000 hosts for behavior that "offended socialist core values and brought negative impacts to the healthy growth of youth and teenagers," according to a statement from the Cyberspace Administration of China, which oversees Internet content. Daddy Rock remains optimistic that streaming’s greatest days are still to come.

"The industry is still young," he said. "I believe there will be high-standard content created on the streams."

That certainly may be the case as more and more streamers are winning new followers.

But for some, the numbers are not the reason to try streaming.

"If you're a talker, you definitely should try streaming for at least once in your life," Andy said. "You will love it."

(Translations by Gong Zhe)