A webcaster eats a dumpling during a show. Photo: CFP

Easy entry and big profits have attracted thousands of users to the emerging webcasting platforms in China. By 2015, there were about 200 webcasting platforms with 200 million users, according to a report from iiMedia Research, a leading mobile Internet organization focusing on third party data mining and integrated marketing.

During peak hours, these platforms could be attracting 4 million users online simultaneously, watching 3,000 different hosts streaming themselves, acting cute, chatting with fans or playing video games.

A webcaster talks about hair styling. Photo: Yang Lan/GT

As long as a person has a phone or computer with a camera and registers on a webcasting platform, he or she can start webcasting. One online source said that some webcast stars could earn as much as 500,000 yuan ($75,096) a month.

Yue Xi started webcasting May 10 and already has 16,000 fans on Yizhibo, one of the popular webcasting platforms in China. About 1,500 to 2,000 viewers watch her stream every day. She is often ranked among Yizhibo's top 10 hosts.

Pink pajamas

Unlike most of the popular webcasters who are Internet celebrities with elfin faces and long slim legs, Yue does not put on make-up or dress up. Her "studio" is her kitchen, and her "uniform" is pink pajamas. With a camera placed next to her stove, she cooks, talks, and shares her life with strangers.

Yue Xi in her kitchen Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee

Before the 2016 Spring Festival, Yue Xi left her job with a real estate developer. After two months of unsuccessfully looking for work, she decided to try creating her own business and asked her husband and friends about webcasting. Thinking that webcasting could be a good platform for her entrepreneurship, she registered an account named Rourou shiguang ("the meat is finished"), and began webcasting her cooking from home.

"I start webcasting at around 6.30 or 7 am every day. I make a breakfast first, some desserts in the morning and then cook lunch. While webcasting, I make two meals and eat them," Yue said. Among the regular dishes that she makes during her webcasts, there are colorful rice balls, beef stew with tomatoes, pilaf and local dishes like noodles with seafood. After webcasting, she writes the recipes down and shares them on her Weibo account.

Yue has good reasons for webcasting in the morning. "There are many celebrities webcasting at night. They have backing from their agencies and fans. As an individual player, I need to choose the timing of my webcasts wisely," Yue said. She believes that she cannot compete with the celebrities so morning webcasts will help her attract more fans.

Most of Yue's viewers are parents, housewives and students. "In families with children, the parents are up at 6.30, and they need to prepare food for the family. They turn on my webcast while doing the housework. Housewives will be free after their husbands go to work so they can watch then. And students who don't have classes in the morning watch the webcast in bed," Yue said.

Some of the dishes she prepares in her webcast Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee

A big future

Yue believes that webcasting will become increasingly popular. "The webcasting platforms are gaining in popularity though not many people are using them yet. But this business will be popular. Maybe someone else instead of me will become really famous, but I feel that webcasting will be very popular in the future," Yue said.

All the webcasting platforms allow viewers to buy virtual gifts to give to their favorite webcasters. On Yizhibo, 10,000 virtual gold coins are sold for 100 yuan. Users can also buy "flowers", "yachts", and "cars" as gifts.

But webcasters cannot directly cash these gifts in - they split the revenue 1:2 with the webcasting platforms.

Usually Yue receives about 10,000 to 20,000 virtual gold coins every day, so she makes just 33 to 66 yuan from this.

"Some agencies demand that their Internet celebrities receive gifts worth a set amount every day. But as an unattached performer, I wouldn't expect that. My goal is to gain popularity and win fans on the platform," Yue said. She has already spent more than she earned from the virtual gifts in promoting her webcast.

Some experts believe that webcasting platforms are offering a new way for people to meet and connect with each other. "Webcasting platforms are one type of social network media," explained assistant research fellow Ding Fangzhou from the Institute of Journalism of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "The key characteristic of social networks is user-generated content. And the difference of webcasting platforms is that they allow users to generate different content in different formats. It has brought innovation in content and interactions.

"Webcasting lets users cross over geographical distances to be 'present' when the webcasters are live streaming," Ding said.

Wang Yue is also an assistant research fellow from the Institute of Journalism of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and she believes that the biggest difference between these webcasting platforms and traditional video sites is their business model.

"Compared with the video sites and the social network platforms, webcasting platforms allow webcasters to earn money through the virtual gifts," Wang said.

A man talks with fans on a webcast. Photo: Yang Lan/GT

Fake accounts

Webcasting platforms are attracting not only webcasters and audiences, but also entrepreneurs and analysts. Kong Qingxun is a young entrepreneur and popular responder on zhihu.com, a Chinese question and answer website.

He registered accounts on several webcasting platforms like Yingke (ingkee.com), Huajiao (http://www.huajiao.com/), and Yizhibo. As a user and a researcher, he not only watches other webcasters' shows, but also webcasted himself. In his trial webcasts, Kong had one big surprise.

"Every time I began webcasting, I would immediately have 21 viewers watching my show. They were all silent, they never left no matter what I did during the webcast and their account IDs all started with '400'," Kong said. "Furthermore, these users were fans of a great number of other webcasters. Another thing they had in common was they never gave gifts. I eventually realized that they were fake accounts created by the webcast platforms," Kong said.

Kong wanted to test this further so he invited a friend to watch his webcast. When his friend logged on to the show, a dozen other users followed him and joined the show immediately. He said these were also fake accounts - these users never left the webcast as long as it lasted. They stayed "watching" Kong even after Kong's friend left. When Kong invited another friend to view his webcast, the number of viewers grew to 59.

However, from beginning to the end there were only two real users (his friends) and the other 58 were all fake accounts.

 Wang investigated further and wrote about his experiences in an article for his WeChat Public account. "The platform showed that 905 users were watching a webcaster's show, but the number of real users was only seven. The platform showed that over 2,000 users were watching another show, but the number of real users was only about 50."

Kong believes that even if the number of fake users has changed, the platforms created these accounts to observe all of the webcasts.

Another user, a Mr Wang, echoed Kong's theory. Wang works in advertising and has watched a lot webcasts.

Wang began his own webcast after registering an account on Yingke. The minute he began webcasting, he had 21 viewers. "So fast? Is it because that I am so good-looking?" Wang asked.

This Russian woman has also entered Chinese webcasting. Photo: Yang Lan/GT

A blackout

The second time, Wang pointed his camera at the desk instead of his face. Even though the screen was blacked out for his webcast, 21 people seemed to be watching.

He checked the account information of each of the 21 viewers, and found out that all their account IDs started with "4000." Even when he abused them they never apparently left his webcast.

Then, Wang asked his girlfriend to enter the webcast as a real viewer. The minute his girlfriend entered the webcast, the number of viewers soared to 61. Wang also believes that all these new viewers were not real people.

Many users like Kong and Wang had previously known about these fake platform accounts but never bothered to publicly disparage them.

Webcaster Yue also knows about the fake accounts on the platforms. But she thinks that this might not be a bad thing. "When I first began to webcast, I had no fans. There would be moments when suddenly dozens of viewers entered my show. I guess these viewers were fake accounts. I think it's just a way that platforms encourage webcasters. On the other hand, they might be using these fake accounts as a way to promote their own platforms, showing there are plenty of viewers on the platforms," Yue said.

But some analysts and experts do not agree. Zhang Jun is a columnist working with Chinese business information and studies exchange platform huxiu.com and other sites like http://www.leiphone.com/. He has written over a dozen analytical reports about the IT industry this year.

Losing patience

"There are more people now saying that the webcasting platforms are faking data. If we find out one day that the astonishing user numbers and profits are all fake or created by the platforms, the result would be terrible. The market would lose patience in webcasting," Zhang said.

Zhang thinks that the bubble of webcasting platforms will eventually burst. "Chinese people like jumping into one thing all at the same time. The webcasting bubble will burst, but webcasting will continue. I think that webcasting will become a common function on many other platforms, like the photo sharing or video sharing functions in social networks. Perhaps, four or five big platforms will survive, and the others will vanish."

He believes that the next contest will be about webcasting content. The platforms that offer better streams than Internet celebrity shows, design better business models and find better content providers will succeed.

Wang Yue also believes that the future of webcasting platforms will be decided by creative content. "Currently, all the webcasting platforms have similar video streams and lack individual features. Relying on the webcasters to attract users and interactivity is not promising," Wang said. She believes that those who can provide high-quality content will eventually win.

"People often link webcasting to indecency or pretty faces, but I think soon webcasting will be more than just Internet celebrities and appearances," webcaster Yue Xi said.

Newspaper headline: Bursting the bubble