Are American live streaming platforms popular? Exploring the differences between Chinese and American live streaming

Since 2015, China has entered the era of live broadcasting. Panda TV, a game live broadcasting platform that Wang Sicong invested heavily in, has led the live broadcasting craze that started with live show broadcasts and game and sports live broadcasts. The United States has also been swept by a live broadcast storm. Driven by old live broadcasting platforms such as Youtube, Younow, and Meerkat, giants such as Facebook and Twitter have joined in. Live broadcasting has given Internet celebrities a new platform outside of Weibo . At the same time, major live broadcasts have also invited popular stars and business celebrities to join, launching a tug-of-war to attract fans. Although there are significant differences between China and the United States in live broadcasting models and applications, they are both facing the problem of how to survive in the new competitive landscape.

As the live broadcast era arrives, who earns more in China or the US?

Miss, the No. 1 female e-sports anchor, signed a three-year contract with Huya for 100 million yuan; Zhang Dayi, an internet celebrity, earned 5,000 yuan in one hour of her first live broadcast; Zhao Benshan's daughter Niuniu earned 880,000 yuan a day from live broadcasting. Behind these sky-high incomes is the era of internet celebrity economy brought about by the rise of live broadcasting. The rise of live broadcasting platforms has provided internet celebrities with another platform to quickly monetize their popularity in addition to selling clothes and cosmetics, and major live broadcasting websites are also competing to spend money to invite internet celebrities to join and use the fan effect to consolidate the market.

Celebrities are also enjoying live streaming: Liu Tao live streamed her TV series, Fan Bingbing live streamed Fashion Week, Li Bingbing live streamed Film Festival, Song Zhongji live streamed fan meet-and-greet, and Bigbang live streamed tour. At the same time, business tycoons are not far behind: Lei Jun live streamed the launch of Xiaomi's drone, Wang Jianlin made his live stream debut on Luyu's Meet-up, and Zhou Hongyi went to Huajiao Live to support the show. In China, the era of universal live streaming has arrived.

In the United States, since Meerkat became popular overnight in 2015, live streaming has quickly become another online interactive platform after Facebook-style community-style friendship interaction, Twitter's short text-style status sharing, and Instagram's picture-style life record. American Internet celebrities have also embarked on the trend of making money through live streaming. Logan Paul and Lele Pons, well-known bloggers and Internet celebrities of Vine (video sharing website), have both been signed by Facebook to its live streaming platform with a large sum of money; Pewdiepie, a famous YouTuber, has more than 40 million subscribers and earned $12 million last year, while his popular video channel Let's play game created $4 million in advertising revenue. Performing stars such as Kevin Hart and Gordon Ramsay have also joined the live streaming army on Facebook.

Live Stream in China vs. Live Stream in the United States

The Big Three in Esports: Twitch vs. Douyu

Twitch is a live streaming platform owned by Amazon , and its main content is e-sports live broadcast. Twitch's predecessor, Justin.tv, is a comprehensive website that includes sports, entertainment news, etc., and ve games are the fastest growing and most popular section. In 2011, Justin.tv separated the game section and established Twitch. Twitch was acquired by Amazon for more than $1 billion in 2014 and currently has more than 100 million viewers.

Twitch includes a wide variety of games, including popular games such as League of Legends, Dota2, and Minecraft. Twitch's live video broadcasts are mainly divided into two types: one is the live broadcast of the entire game by game masters, and the other is game commentary. Some commentators wear hot clothes, and some use funny language. Different broadcasters rely on their own personalized characteristics to attract viewers.

The rules for Twitch streamers to make money are similar to those of Youtube: when the number of views is large enough, the website will share the advertising profits with the streamers, and viewers can also directly tip the streamers with PayPal. The operation of the website mainly relies on the advertising fees of advertisers and the membership fees paid by users every month. Users who pay membership fees can enjoy some upgraded services such as free ads, exclusive emojis, and larger video storage space for $8.99 per month.

Unlike Twitch, which displays the comments made by users in real time next to the video, domestic e-sports platforms such as Douyu mostly make comments in the form of bullet screens. Douyu TV's predecessor was A Station (ACFUN), which was the first online platform in China with animation as its main content and bullet screens as its communication form, and attracted a large number of users born in the 1980s and 1990s in a short period of time. Douyu TV mainly broadcasts game videos, but also covers entertainment and sports. Unlike Twitch, which only gives rewards after the broadcaster's popularity increases, Douyu broadcasters make money by rewarding viewers with "gifts" bought with money. Different platforms have different commission ratios, and the broadcaster and the platform share the profits in the end. This is also the main way for broadcasters on domestic live broadcast platforms to make money.

According to Forbes, as of June 14, 2016, the 11 most popular channels on Twitch had a total of 4,213 videos, and the "outlier channels", which are channels with far more viewers than those playing the same game content, have accumulated their current popularity over many years. According to statistics, 75% of the outlier channels were established before 2013, while the remaining 95% of the channels with lower popularity were established after 2014. It is not difficult to see that under Twitch's operating model, it generally takes about three years for a channel to establish a stable and large customer base and achieve profitability.

Unlike Twitch, which accumulated funds slowly, Douyu TV has rapidly expanded its capital and customer base in just two years since its establishment in 2014. In March 2016, Douyu completed a $100 million (RMB 670 million) Series B investment, with Tencent leading the investment of $400 million, and Series A investors Sequoia Capital and Nanshan Capital following suit, with a valuation of over $1 billion. According to Alexa, a third-party data website, Douyu currently ranks 200th on the global website, with an average daily visit volume of 15.63 million.

Newcomers in the category of mass participation: Periscope VS Inke Live

Periscope is a comprehensive video live broadcast application created by founders Beykpour and Bernstein in 2014. At that time, they named the application Bounty. In the early days of its creation, Periscope received $1.5 million in investment from venture capital companies such as Google Ventures and Menlo Ventures, and was acquired by Twitter, one of the top ten most visited websites in the world, in 2015. After the acquisition, it was officially launched under the name of Periscope. With the help of Twitter's powerful promotion platform and the trend of video live broadcast, Periscope has more than 10 million registered users in just four months after its launch. Most of Periscope's broadcasters are grassroots people who share their personal lives such as cooking recipes and travel scenery anytime and anywhere, and the onlookers can send love to the broadcasters by touching the screen. Popular broadcasters can attract sponsorship from commercial companies in the later stage to obtain commercial profits.

Similar to Periscope, Inke Live is also a model of the live broadcast industry that has risen rapidly in China in a short period of time. Inke Live received a 5 million yuan investment from an angel fund when it was first established in May 2015. In November 2015, it received a tens of millions yuan A round of financing led by SAIF Partners. In December, it received an 80 million yuan A+ round of financing led by Kunlun Wanwei. In just half a year, it received three rounds of financing, doubled its value, and had a daily activity volume of over 10 million. Inke quickly carved out a path among the old live broadcast platforms YY Live, Changba, and Huajiao. Similar to Periscope's customer positioning, unlike the mainstream positioning of show-style live broadcasts and game live broadcasts at the time, Inke's positioning is to focus on fashion concepts and mainly involve amateurs, with Inke integrating into users' lives as the main entry point. Ordinary people share their own food, music, or small things that happen at any time through Inke, and also accept online "gifts" from the public and profit from website dividends.

Veteran Battleground: Meerkat VS YY Live

Meerkat is the first popular live streaming app in the United States. Its predecessor was Yevvo, which was founded by Rubin in 2013. Due to the inappropriate timing and model of its birth, Yevvo did not develop optimistically and was removed from the market in 2014. In February 2015, after re-development, Rubin launched Meerkat, which quickly became popular after its launch, with more than 300,000 users in less than a month. Meerkat was positioned in the technology circle in the early days. It quickly became popular in the technology circle by using the platform promotion of Product Hunt (a new product recommendation platform) and SXSW (South by Southwest, an annual new electronic product promotion conference that once made Twitter popular) and the connection with Twitter accounts. It gained 15,000 users in three days and quickly obtained a US$14 million (about RMB 90 million) Series B financing led by Greylock Ventures.

Compared to Periscope, Meerkat's page design is simpler and clearer. The videos are divided into two categories: live broadcasts and upcoming live broadcasts. Meerkat's current user base is also mainly ordinary people. Before Meerkat, online live broadcasts in the United States were mainly in the form of web page live broadcasts. Meerkat has ushered in a new era of mobile phone live broadcasts and emphasized participatory user experience by allowing users to click on the heart to like or write comments. Recently, Meerkat launched a new recording function LVR. Users who are interested in the upcoming live broadcast but cannot watch it immediately can click "record" to store and record the video.

Similar to Meerkat's market pioneer status, YY Live is also a long-established live broadcast platform in China. YY Live's predecessor was YY Game Live, which was founded in 2012 and is affiliated with Joyy . YY Game Live is positioned to provide players with high-definition e-sports and sports events. In 2014, it was officially renamed YY Live, covering sports, celebrities, games, music and other aspects. It is themed on amateur show-style live broadcasts and is more popular. With a long history, YY has strong guild resources, and a large number of guild anchors also enable YY to stand firm in the fiercely competitive market.

Unlike the amateur anchors on other domestic platforms who earn money by receiving gifts from viewers, YY anchors need to sign contracts with guilds and obey the guild's arrangements if they want to cash in the gifts. The anchors' profits come from the fixed salary and commissions given by the YY platform, as well as advertising cooperation with merchants. Compared with Meerkat's live broadcast mode where the masses can broadcast live at any time, YY's show live broadcast has higher requirements for anchors. Generally, popular anchors are good-looking, versatile, cheerful, and have professional electronic equipment.

Internet giants have joined the live broadcast industry

The fresh meat of live streaming not only attracts young investors to join, but also network giants are participating in it. In the United States, in addition to Twitter and Amazon's purchase of Periscope and Twitch respectively, Facebook and Google have recently joined the live streaming trend. Facebook launched the Facebook Live live streaming application. Its strategy is similar to Periscope, which uses its existing user base and social network to form a stable customer base. Google's Youtube has always had live streaming content. Recently, Youtube has specially distinguished the live streaming function Youtube Live Mobile Streaming and officially joined the competition after testing it among a small number of users. In China, the competition has also entered a white-hot stage. At present, there are more than 200 live streaming platforms in the Chinese market. In addition to the layout of BAT, Xiaomi, Weibo, Momo and others have also joined. Tencent alone currently has seven live streaming platforms, and the TuYi Group, which has just merged with Alibaba , has six live streaming platforms, including LaiFeng, Huomao TV, and Youku. At the same time, Momo and Weibo have their own huge user bases to support them. The competition among live streaming platforms is intensifying.

Faced with the new competitive landscape, live streaming platforms in both countries have introduced different strategies to cope with it in order to win in the battle. Twitter banned Meerkat's function of automatically importing contacts from Twitter, Facebook continued to invite celebrities to join with a large sum of money, Twitch added the function of viewers sending "cheers" (similar to the gift-giving function in China), and Meerkat has begun to decline in performance and revise its core business under the pressure of many giants. In China, as new competitors join, old platforms are also upgrading. YY recently announced the launch of a live streaming box to optimize the output of PUGC, while promoting cooperation with entertainment giants such as Mango Entertainment and Huace Entertainment. Inke has increased its cooperation with celebrities and used the fan utility to consolidate the market. Under the new competitive landscape, the competition among platforms is not only about content, but also a series of comprehensive competitions such as resources, ecological layout, and media cooperation.

A fad or a future trend? Can live streaming avoid the decline of O2O after the carnival?

Xiaoye Takeaway, eFood, Suiyi... The "Death List of O2O Projects in East China" lists the victims of the O2O game. In 2014, when O2O was at its peak, you could scan the QR code with your mobile phone to get lunch, fruit, cosmetics, a private car, or an airplane. Anything you wanted could be delivered to you at a low price through various apps. At that time, various online and offline companies emerged like mushrooms after a rain, and with the crazy investment of capital, O2O entered its carnival era. However, serious homogeneity problems, broken capital chain problems, and insufficient offline resources caused O2O to go bankrupt in just one year. Most of the surviving companies were backed by capital giants and basically had a monopoly in the industry, such as Didi in the taxi industry and Ctrip in the travel industry . Small and medium-sized enterprises can no longer survive.

Just one year later, live streaming came even more rapidly. Today, the investment boom caused by live streaming is no less than that of the original O2O model. Whether it can avoid repeating the "tragic death of O2O" has become a question that every participant in this event needs to think about. Compared with the United States, there are more live streaming platforms in the Chinese market, and the competition is more intense. At the same time, the market and competition methods are more overlapping. Early live streaming platforms were basically based on show and game sports live streaming. Whether the anchor has a sweet appearance, a sexy figure, revealing clothes, and whether the words are coquettish enough have become the competition points for attracting users. Now, each company is using a crazy money-burning model to attract celebrities to sign contracts for popular programs to expand the market. If you want to avoid the fate of O2O, you need to pay attention to the following aspects:

1. From star-dependence to mass participation

Although celebrities are very popular, it is difficult to maintain a normal state. It is difficult to maintain a high traffic routine by relying solely on celebrities. At the same time, ordinary users are also prone to lack of presence. When the audience is aesthetically fatigued by celebrities and their own needs cannot be met, live broadcasting will easily reach a dead end. Therefore, whether it can gradually transition from a model that is highly dependent on celebrities to a model that focuses on the participation of ordinary people will be the key to future competition. In this regard, Yingke's model is more optimized. From the beginning, it has been normal to use amateur live broadcasts to integrate Yingke into the lives of ordinary people, seizing the opportunity of this vacant market.

2. Diversification of market positioning

Most of the current live broadcast platforms have overlapping positioning, and it is difficult for users to distinguish the differences between different live broadcast platforms. In the long run, it will enter the cycle of O2O capital game, and small and medium-sized platforms will face the problem of difficulty in recovering costs and broken capital chains, and eventually withdraw from the competitive market. Therefore, adopting a differentiated strategy to form its own characteristics, even if it targets niche markets, is a long-term way for small and medium-sized platforms to survive.

3. Create a content mechanism with distinct levels and rich diversity

In the early days of China, live streaming content was positioned at a low level, and some platforms were taken offline due to pornographic content and other issues. Taking this single, borderline approach is not only easy to touch the edge of the system, but also difficult to attract user interest in the long run. Therefore, creating diverse, rich and interesting content is a more far-sighted development model.

Compared with China, the number of companies in the live broadcast industry in the United States is much smaller, so the competition is not as fierce. But at the same time, the advantages of Internet giants such as Facebook and Twitter are more obvious, and other companies can hardly catch up in terms of capital scale and customer resources. In this case, it is the key for small companies to survive to find the right market and avoid overlapping competition with Internet giants. Meerkat has begun to shift from a multi-person interaction model to a minority community interaction model in the face of declining profits due to being squeezed, avoiding direct confrontation with Twitter, Google, and Facebook. At the same time, the diversity and richness of content on live broadcast platforms in the United States are not as rich as those on Chinese platforms, and this will also become a potential area of ​​competition in the future. For example, some platforms have begun to study how to integrate VR and live broadcast.

The capital feast will eventually calm down. It is too early to judge who will win or lose, but it is certain that only by accurately grasping the positioning and forming their own advantages that are difficult to imitate can the live broadcast platforms in China and the United States survive to the end. To quote Buffett: "Only when the tide recedes can you tell who is swimming naked."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.