How China's streaming industry is coining it
YY is a major Chinese video-based social network with over 300 million users. It features a virtual currency which users earn through activities. YY is a major Chinese video-based social network with over 300 million users. It features a virtual currency which users earn through activities.
Beijing: A young woman is poised at her dressing table. She applies a thick layer of mascara, a face lit by bright lights and magnified by mirrors.
After applying the make-up and chatting to an off-screen filmmaker in Chinese, Shen Man turns to a microphone and begins her online show.
Shen streams her performances on a Chinese platform called yy.com and is a subject of a new documentary called People's Republic of Desire.
She is part of an industry estimated to be worth around $4.4 billion (R58bn), and she earns around $500000 for singing from just a chair in her frilly bedroom. She responds to comments from fans. The fans also send her money. A lot of money.
I was sitting in a dark library room watching filmmaker Hao Wu’s People's Republic of Desire, on a freezing Beijing evening.
This was the first screening at the Bookworm, a popular ex-pat hangout in Sanlitun, that serves craft beer, coffee and books for sale and borrow. It's the sort of place where you can indulge in deep conversations with writers and journalists from around the world.
The Bookworm is hosting their literary festival and plans to screen the film again today. People's Republic of Desire is a window into a world unfamiliar to westerners. Move over YouTube vloggers, “social media influencers” and Instagrammers.
With more than 100 000 followers, the yy.com streamers make a fortune and are lavished with gifts from fans.
Shen attempts to explain the yy economy in a triangle.
She places herself at the top as a host. In the one bottom corner, there's the patrons/fans who spend money. Among them are “super-givers” or “kings”, who will spend anything from $35 000 during a live-stream to $2 million.
Some Chinese yy addicts will give their hard-earned cash for a possible “xie xie” (thank you) from the hosts.
It reminds me of a friend, who in the 90s, sent a small sum of cash and a letter of admiration to pop star Mariah Carey, and in return, received a signed letter.
In the other bottom corner of the triangle are the “daosi”, Chinese for “losers”. They are the sadly-portrayed yy addicts and streamers who have stopped paying hosts or who just don't have money. They add to the fame of live-streaming hosts simply by contributing to their viewership numbers, but receive no love from the hosts.
There are more elements that makes this triangular economy. Agents have emerged who sign current and new hosts and take a commission from their earnings.
Then there are those that prepare and groom new yy hosts through coaching and managing, in the hope of cashing in on the popular platforms.
Part of the story is told through an annual yy voting competition that happens every December. Daosi and fans alike buy votes for a few yuan, while hosts like Shen and others use their channels to lobby for votes to win titles like best hostess. Winning brings more fame, adoration, cash, gifts and prominence on yy.
Shen’s story beings with her unfamiliarity with the yy world. She learns to balance her values and duty to her family with fame, and the dynamics of her work.Her journey began in 2015, about the time that live streaming first boomed in China.
A scene in the doccie shows her having supper with her family in a low-key restaurant.
Her father questions how she can make money or a career from yy. Later, she upgrades her family to a plush apartment.
Her parents watch her live streams in the lounge, during the streamathon. Her father says she is getting older and she needs to secure their family's future.
People's Republic of Desire is available for rented streaming on Vimeo, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.
*Martin is a participant in the 2019 China Africa Press Centre.