The streamers sit close together. Image via Naomi Wu.
Videos of influencers filming themselves sitting or standing on the street are appearing more and more frequently on Chinese streaming platforms. They are equipped with smartphone tripods, mobile LED video lights and microphones. Some even bring their own seating. But why?
The influencers film live shows for their social media channels on site. Make-up tutorials, karaoke or ASMR seem to be particularly popular. A video by the Chinese influencer Naomi Wu makes it clear how close the influencers are to each other:
link to Twitter content
The location is crucial
The influencers use the location function of the streaming platforms to increase their visibility. Users can search for local content and then see nearby streamers.
Many influencers therefore take to the streets in wealthy districts to increase their visibility among wealthy viewers and thereby receive more donations.
The comments below the videos on Twitter are not all positive. Some find it weird that people stream on the street to make more money as influencers. For many, the images and videos have something dystopian.
link to Twitter content
But Naomi Wu counters that streaming on the street is a fun group activity for many of the influencers. During the day they go to work normally, but at night they are little celebrities singing, dancing or painting in the streets. She says: Your dystopia is our utopia.
The Chinese police don’t seem to have a problem with the influencers and only send them away if they disturb the peace. The influencers have not yet received an ad.
Is that also conceivable in Europey?
In China, services like Twitch are nowhere near as popular as iQiYi.com or qq.com. Due to the looser data protection laws, filtering according to local content is possible there.
Platforms like Twitch don’t have an option for users to filter by a person’s exact location.
If you would like to become a streamer yourself, then take a look at our overview article on the best streamer hardware: The best hardware for your start on Twitch and Co.
Do you use streaming platforms like Twitch yourself? And quite apart from the factors of donation and data protection: would you find it interesting in general to be able to filter streamers based on the location from which they broadcast? Or is that a function that you haven’t missed on Twitch & Co. so far? Feel free to write it in the comments!
