Since the uplifting of the restrictions on social media in 2009, many Chinese social media platforms have been growing rapidly which now rivals their western counterparts in monthly active users. Such advancement has impacted many different aspects of culture in China giving birth to new developments on the limitations of social media along with its fair share of influencers.
Live Streaming has gained much popularity in China and it has been known that most live streamers gain popularity and earn money equal to the average celebrity. The video showcases the daily life of live streamer Jin He who is known mostly for her singing. Jin He has her own agency company that not only manages her daily live streams but also trains and teaches people on how to become successful live streamers. It is not rare for live streamers to be associated with such agencies as they guide live streamers to appear as appealing as possible to the audience in return for a portion of the donations the live streamers earn. The video also showcases the other side of live streaming: the audience. Live streaming has gained popularity as many believe that a virtual relationship is nothing short of a real relationship and can be more convenient and even more intimate. Although the growing popularity of live streaming can seem harmless, Jin He is repeatedly shown as being tired and overworked which connects back to the Chinese work culture of 996.
This video offers a thorough yet quick summary on the various popular social media apps in China. To begin with, Jen introduces WeChat (微信) which serves as the most general social media used by Chinese people. The reason behind it being the most general app is because it serves so many purposes ranging from money transferal/payment, health services, transportation/travel services, shopping/food delivery, entertainment, etc. The next app discussed is Weibo (微博) which can be seen as the Chinese Twitter where users share short remarks as it quite literally translates to micro-blog. China also has TikTok called Douyin (抖音) which in fact was the original. The app offers the same entertainment as TikTok but has a slightly different take on the "for you page" algorithm where instead of only showcasing large creators, offers a variety of all small, medium, and large creators. Lastly, Jen speaks about Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) which can be seen as the Chinese version of YouTube. Jen mentions that she too has a Bilibili channel and was required to take a test consisting of 40 questions before having access to certain features on the platform.
Live Streamer Li Jiaqi's Story
Live Streamer Li Ziqi's Story
At the end of 2016, L'Oreal Group and ONE cooperated to hold the "BA Net Red" Taobao Live Project Competition. Li Jiaqi won the competition and signed a contract with ONE, and came to Shanghai with RMB 2,000 to settle in Taobao Live to start his own Webcast career. At the beginning of his career, Li Jiaqi worked as a make-up artist during the day, and started live broadcasting after work in the evening. He was responsible for all the work of product copywriting and goods sorting, and the working time was more than 15 hours. In the first three months, the live broadcast was not smooth, and the number of viewers was small. Li Jiaqi once wanted to give up his live broadcast career. But under the persuasion of the agent, Li Jiaqi decided to give himself another chance. Since then, the viewing volume of the live broadcast has gradually improved. In September 2018, Li Jiaqi successfully challenged the Guinness World Record for "the most people who apply lipstick in 30 seconds", and won the title of "Lipstick Brother". As of June 2019, he has nearly 50 million fans on the Internet, more than most singers and actors in the entertainment industry in mainland China.
In 2012, because her grandmother was seriously ill, in order to take care of her, she returned to her hometown. In order to earn living expenses, she opened a Taobao online store to sell local agricultural products. In order to promote the store's agricultural products, at the suggestion of her cousin, she came into contact with the short video platform Meipai, and in 2015, she began to take self-directed, self-acted and edited short videos that tended to be ancient food. In the early days, her video production was relatively dull, and although creative, it lacked relevant visual effects. Until 2016, Li Ziqi's work "Peach Blossom Wine" was photographed by the CEO of a short video platform and pushed to the top page of the platform. Since then, it has attracted more attention. After the work "Lanzhou Beef Noodles" was uploaded to her YouTube channel, her single video has maintained an average of more than 5 million views. Among them, "New Year's Snacks Special" (uploaded on January 31, 2019) is the single video with the highest number of views (106.67 million views as of January 25, 2022).
Live Streamer Weiya's Story
On November 11th (discount day like Black Friday in the US) in 2015, the online store operated by Weiya achieved more than 10 million sales a day, and the annual sales also reached more than 30 million. In May 2016, Wei Ya officially became a live streamer of Taobao Live, and after four months, the guided turnover rate reached 100 million. In October 2017, Weiya guided sales to 70 million for a fur shop with zero fans in a live broadcast. In January 2019, Weiya tried a new model of live streaming with Aliyu. 5,000 sets of jeans were bought in one second. The first batch of 13,500 live broadcasts were sold out, and the cumulative sales reached 2 million yuan. On January 10, Weiya moved the live broadcast room to the site of the Alibaba Technology Poverty Alleviation Conference to help poor counties in Hebei sell 21 kinds of agricultural products such as eggs, yam, winter jujube, and sesame oil. During the period, Jack Ma, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, visited Weiya's public welfare live broadcast room.
The online live broadcast industry has become popular with many young girls in China. What is most shocking is not only the speed of their popularity, but the extremely high income that far exceeds any other industry. The live streaming industry has also attracted the attention of the British BBC. Reporter Natalia Zuo came to China to shoot three documentaries, showing the world the joys and sorrows of Chinese female Internet anchors on the way to fame.
The video introduced the live streaming industry through the lens of live stream singer Le Le Tao. Lele Taoren is only 24 years old and has been in the business for 6 years. At first, she was just curious about the online live broadcast, and usually she simply broadcasted for fun. Eventually more people on the Internet began to like her, gave her gifts, and started to earn more.
Live Streaming is gaining major popularity in China as it is now a multi-billion dollar industry and is projected to surpass China’s box office revenues. The existence of live streaming incubators further proves the growth of live streaming culture. Live streaming incubators are companies that manage up to 6000 live streamers. Live streamers are not only limited to good looking men and women but also consist of farmers, construction workers, and comedians. The video focuses on the shift of such live streaming cultures within foreign countries such as the U.S. One example of this would be the company LiveMe which is a Chinese backed company that is trying to bring in Chinese live streaming into the U.S. and has been somewhat successful.
The advancement of technology and development of AI and the MetaVerse has also greatly impacted the concept of social media. Such growth in this industry has allowed people to literally surpass their own limitations. This video captures a glimpse of such revolution through the lens of Gina, a virtual influencer, who can literally exist as one's wildest imagination through the great team work of a ex-idol dancer, sports team manager, and various AI technicians. The shift in social media from a form of simply connecting with others has now begun to develop into another world where people are not limited to their physical self and can interact with virtual, and arguably made up entities such as Gina.
Although the Great Fire Wall of China, a virtual wall used by the Chinese Government to censor its people from certain media sources on the internet, is prominent for blocking out popular western social media and search engines such as Facebook and Google, there is a foolproof way of still accessing them. By using a VPN, which stands for Virtual Private Network, anyone in China can still have access to any social media or search engine that China's fire wall is trying to restrict. Nico provides a thorough explanation of VPNs with important takes such as it is recommended to use a reputable company's VPN even though it may cost you money for a subscription as utilizing a VPN can risk your own IP address. Further she provides her own experience of seeing how "literally everyone" in China uses it to grant the safety of this convenient service.