Inside China’s Live-Streaming Craze

Recently, Recode's Kara Swisher took over Peter Kafka's Recode Media podcast to talk about China's live-streaming craze. She spoke with Loretta Chao, a former WSJ reporter who covers tech in China, and Hao Wu, a former executive of Alibaba and a director of "The People's Republic of Desire", an award-winning documentary about Chinese live-streamers. The 45-minute episode that arose from that conversation tries to identify what's driving the estimated $4.4 billion industry, and zeros in on China's live-streaming ecosystem and its strange and exploitative relationships.

What is particularly egregious is that the virtual world seems to reflect China's increasingly unequal society, where many dream of becoming rich and famous, but only a select few actually achieve it. The streamers seek fortune and fame by broadcasting everything from singing to eating in front of a camera. Those who succeed often go from rags to riches, earning as much as $1,45 million a year. "In a modern Chinese society that's kind of making it," explains Hao Wu. 

Stardom relies on diaosi, commonly translated into English as "losers". Those penniless fans tip the streamers with whatever little money they make and fantasise about the life their idols have made for themselves while they struggle with anonymity and loneliness. But the real money comes from the rich patrons called tuhao, who ostentatiously flaunt their wealth online "in front of tens of thousands of 'poor' fans to get their ego boost." 

While the episode offers an insightful examination of contemporary Chinese internet culture, it also holds a more universal message: although get-rich-quick schemes and ploys for fame have been around forever, today the stardom and wealth might seem to be "just one click away".