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 After five hours of rhinoplasty and facial fat injections that left
her with gauze covering her nose, eyes, forehead and cheeks, the
27-year-old said she felt "even worse than dead". But the suffering
was worth it.
Jing is among tens of thousands hoping to find online stardom as an
anchor on the live video streaming phenomenon sweeping China's
media.
The fastest-emerging internet sector barely existed in China three
years ago but last year produced revenues of more than 30 billion
yuan ($4.3 billion) and according to an estimate by investment bank
China Renaissance Securities, is set to more than triple that by
2020. That puts it on track to overtake cinema box office receipts
in a few year’s time.
"I want more people to watch me, to spend Huajiao coins on me," Jing
explained, referring to the virtual gifts her online followers buy
that she can later redeem in part for cash.
"In the end, I'll be able to marry a tall, handsome and rich man,"
Jing said.
The rapid growth of live streaming in China has attracted a rush of
investment, led by China’s tech heavyweights, Tencent Holdings,
Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu Inc. They hope live streaming can
boost existing services in e-commerce, social networking and gaming.
Tencent, the country’s biggest online gaming and social networking
company, is backing a slew of streaming and interactive
entertainment firms, including gaming platform Douyu. Alibaba's
Taobao marketplace launched a live-streaming platform early last
year, allowing sellers to promote products directly to online
viewers in real time.
The lure is some 344 million Chinese netizens – more than the
population of every country on the planet bar China and India - who
were watching live streaming sites in December. And that is only
about 47 percent of all Chinese Internet users. There are about 150
live streaming platforms, most producing entertainment shows.
The importance of live streaming in lower-tier cities is greater
than elsewhere in China. Access to the internet via a mobile phone
is the major, if not the only, gateway to shopping and
entertainment, said Karen Chan, equities analyst at Jefferies Hong
Kong.
Live streaming has also bolstered the growth of ancillary
businesses, including agencies looking to find the next live
streaming star, consumer loans, and even cosmetic surgery.
Deng Jian, chairman of Three Minute TV, an agency that provides
1,000 trained anchors to more than three dozen platforms, said his
business operates a “militarized” production machine to feed the
live streaming industry.
At an office building in a suburb of Beijing, dozens of Deng’s
female anchors work each day around the clock in three shifts. Each
anchor sits in a small booth, decorated to appear like a girl’s
bedroom, facing a computer.
They sing and flirt with fans, encouraging them to buy virtual
gifts, like a rose, sportscar or villa. The cash for the gifts is
split by the platforms, agencies and the anchor.
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Three Minute TV also arranges cosmetic surgery at partner hospitals
for its anchors, arranges small bank loans for the surgery,
photographs and markets the anchors and helps them find acting
opportunities Deng said.
After the spurt of growth in live streaming and the rush of
platforms it spawned, the arrival of tech giants is pointing to
consolidation in the sector, analysts said.
“Live streaming has always been a 'cash-burning' industry,” a Douyu
executive, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. “After an
industry growth spurt, very few live-streaming platforms can survive
until B round,” the executive said, referring to the next stage of a
company's financing.
Authorities have also clamped down on streaming sites that provide
illegal content, adding to the consolidation risk, said iResearch
analyst Tina Zhang.
In July, China's culture ministry announced that it had shut down
4,313 online show rooms, firing or punishing more than 18,000
anchors. Twelve platforms, including heavyweights Panda TV, 6.CN and
Douyu, were punished and ordered to make changes after offering
illicit content that “promotes obscenity, violence, abets crime and
damages social morality”.
Still, the prospect of change in the sector hasn’t faded the hopes
of thousands of young Chinese who want to become internet stars.
Jin Xing, the founder of cosmetic surgery app Soyoung, said he
estimates 95 percent of anchors have undergone cosmetic surgery to
improve their looks. The app connects cosmetic surgery centres with
prospective clients.
"Live streaming cannot be faked and cosmetic surgery increases the
chance of getting a virtual gift," said Jin, who reckons about a
fifth of Soyoung customers come from the live streaming universe.
Jing, the Huajiao anchor, said her goal was to become famous enough
as a streaming anchor to open her own online e-commerce store.
"Using 72 hours of pain in exchange for three to five years of good
looks is totally worthwhile," Jing said following her cosmetic
surgery.
(Reporting By Shu Zhang and Matthew Miller; Editing by Neil Fullick)
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