As a former professional live streamer in China, it has been almost comical, albeit a bit disheartening, to see the trite reviews coming out about the new award-winning documentary “The People’s Republic of Desire” which follows the lives of two live streamers on the Chinese platform
Instead of doing more research on the live streaming industry, Western film critics seem to have gotten caught up in the film’s intense narrative and found it easier to resort to tired “Black Mirror” references and cliche "look at this weird thing happening in China" rhetoric.
Don’t get me wrong, overall, the film itself was excellent and I hope the director Hao Wu continues to produce films that explore facets of modern China that most Westerners are not typically exposed to. However, I happen to be in the relatively unique position of being a westerner who spent 8 years living in China and 2 of those livestreaming for a living. Before I get into the specifics of where I think the film oversimplified and in some instances falsely characterized livestreaming in China, Forbes readers should realize how innovative and important this phenomenon is to social media and ecommerce in China. Companies like Tencent and
1. The film is an overly dramatized glimpse at the lives of the top 1%
To create an entertaining documentary, Hao Wu understandably choose streamers who would produce the most interesting stories possible. But let’s be clear, the two streamers followed in the documentary, Big Li and Shen Man, are part of the top 1% of all streamers in China. The lengths that they go to, the pressures they face, and the money they earn are not representative of all streamers.
My life as a streamer was not nearly as extreme. I did spend several hours a day streaming and several more in chat groups cultivating relationships with my fans, and of course there was occasional drama, but unlike Big Li and Shen Man, I still spent plenty of time outside, at the gym, and with family and friends.
Granted I was earning only a sixth of what they were (Shen Man reportedly earned $40,000 a month) but for what they sacrificed to achieve that level of success, I was just fine with my not-too-shabby streaming income.
A number of movie reviews as well as countless articles over the past few years have touted flashy figures saying, “live streaming hosts can earn enormous sums, up to a reported $200,000 a month and more.” Yes, that is possible, but maybe .01% of streamers are doing it. An average top streamer may earn $5,000-$10,000 a month, however, with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people live streaming in China, the majority of them are earning very little, less than $1,000 a month.
One review I read also painted an inaccurate picture of the way income is broken down, saying “YY takes between 50 and 60 percent of all that pledged cash. The rest goes to the streamers, who—if they’re backed by a talent agency—split off a 20 percent take for their financial backers.” While this may be true for some streamers, in my experience working with several agencies across different platforms, typically the agency’s cut is taken from the percentage given to the streaming platform, not the percentage given to the streamer. So if the platform took 50 to 60 percent, that remaining 40 to 50 percent was mine, I never had to give any of that to the agency.
2. The live streaming phenomenon exists in the West too, not just in China
The majority of reviews I read failed to recognize the existence of a thriving live streaming industry in the U.S., and if they did mention the western live streaming industry, they showed little understanding of it.
This pithy review from The New York Times showed the author’s disdain for an industry he clearly knew nothing about, “You don’t wait for what comes next in “People’s Republic of Desire” as much as you watch and wonder why any of it is happening. That sensation arises often in this canny documentary about a baffling topic….where hundreds of millions of people log in to watch various hosts sing, tell jokes and hustle to entertain audiences. At first, none of it seems too different from, say, American cable-access programs or
Because they fail to understand the appeal of live streaming, many critics distanced themselves from it, concluding that what was shown in the film must only happen in a different culture on the other side of the world.
But this is far from the truth. Over the past two years, live streaming has become a part of the mainstream social media industry in the US with companies such as Twitch, Live.Me and The Meet Group experiencing rapid growth.
Virtual gifting is quite popular on western platforms
While Twitch has a unique subscriber and ad-based revenue structure, most Western live streaming platforms are extremely similar to Chinese ones, insofar as streamers can earn cash rewards from virtual gifts given to them by audience members. If you hop on any of these platforms you will quickly discover that virtual gifting is most definitely not a phenomenon that only occurs in Asia. In fact The Meet Group, which operates several Western live streaming platforms, began monetizing their live streams in October 2017 and grew their video business to a $55 million annualized revenue run rate in just 12 months.
Diaosi and Tuhao exist in our culture too
Another theme that was present throughout the film was how live streaming appeals to the lonely, the “diaosi” or losers wanting to be seen and add entertainment to their boring lives, and the “tuhao”, the nouveau riche who want to flaunt their wealth for others’ adoration.
Again - this concept is not isolated to China, with lonely people around the world logging on to live streaming platforms to try and make meaningful connections that they can’t seem to find in real life. And the tuhao, they exist here in the West as well, and are typically referred to as whales. If you think about it, wanting people to acknowledge your wealth and status by sending a huge gift in a live stream is no different than buying a ferrari or wearing a flashy diamond chain. It's just because it's happening in a virtual world that people find it strange.
A quote from an LA Times review sums it up quite well, “Though all these technological trappings are newer than new, the human needs for happiness, applause and emotional connection are classic.”
Other inaccurate statements about the live streaming industry
The one review I did find that tried to compare the Chinese and Western live streaming industries painted what I would consider to be an inaccurate picture saying:
“In America, users on the US-based livestreaming service Twitch stream for hours at a time—usually playing video games—and encourage people to either donate or subscribe to their channel for a small fee. Twitch takes a cut of the money and the streamers keep performing. On Twitch, anyone can hop on to the stream and try to chat with the streamer for free. Not so on YY, where even the simplest interaction costs money.”
That’s not true. Chatting with a live streamer on Chinese live streaming platforms is free. If you want to catch the streamer’s attention, stand out from the crowd, and try to develop a closer relationship with them, gifts are the best way to do that, but you are not obligated to send gifts.
I also find fault in this statement:
“In America, YouTubers and Twitch streamers focus on churning out hours of content everyday to stay profitable. On YY, it’s all about relationships. A streamer will only spend a couple hours a day streaming, then get on the phone to talk to rich patrons or spend hours in chat rooms and message boards drumming up support among the losers. Rich patrons typically have access to streaming celebrities in way that’s not common in the US. Li and Man field phone calls from rich patrons who promise more money and ask them to hang out.”
On Western live streaming platforms, building relationships with top gifters outside of the stream is quite common as well. Streamers will set up chat groups with their top gifters, and sometimes organize meetups as well. And when starting out, smaller broadcasters will frequently spend time in other streams developing relationships with other viewers in hopes that they can get them to come watch their stream.
3. Neglect to mention the positive aspects of live streaming
The film focused a lot on the struggle against irrelevancy and pressure streamers face to maintain their level of popularity. I felt this too, the pressure to stream daily and constantly come up with new content for fear that my fans would move on. Yet at the same time, I as well as many of the streamers I knew, recognized that our careers as streamers were temporary. We were not going to do this our entire lives and we were merely trying to make the most of our momentum as long as it lasted, knowing that eventually new streamers would come along and we would move on to other things.
One reporter called the movie both “tragic and terrifying in equal measure”. But why was it either of those? For Big Li and Shen Man, live streaming will most likely be the best thing that ever happened to them. Even if they stop streaming right now, the amount of money they have earned from these few years of streaming can sustain them and their families for years and years to come.
For many young people living in smaller cities and rural regions of China, the lack of job opportunities often forces them to leave their families behind as they head off to larger cities to find work. In many parts of China, live streaming has given them a new option allowing them to work from home and face much less hardship than they would otherwise.
All in all, Hao Wu does an excellent job portraying one facet, one extreme, of the Chinese live streaming industry and I strongly recommend people go to see the film if they can. However, I highly advise anyone who is actually interested in the live streaming industry to take the film’s content with a grain of salt, and recognize that most reviewers of this film clearly have no experience with the film’s subject matter.
Full Disclosure: I am the VP of Live Streaming for The Meet Group, a portfolio of mobile social entertainment apps. The views expressed herein are my own and not necessarily those of The Meet Group.
