Like living in a fish bowl

One in seven people on the Chinese mainland are reportedly hooked to live streaming videos, which sometimes feature hostesses from HK. Evelyn Yu meets those in the business of creating alternative realities that audience pay to watch.

Fu Dongdong was a delivery man for an electronics factory in Suzhou before he started making a fortune - parading scantily-clad young ladies in front of cameras, and opening up an alternate reality for thousands of lonely, alienated men.

A little over a year ago, Fu figured he'd had enough of the grind of lugging electronic gear, fretting about deliveries going to the wrong place, and getting ragged by the boss for catching a nap in the middle of the day. For 3,000 yuan ($451) a month he decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

Fu went and found some pretty girls, factory workers, migrant workers, like himself. He dressed them in revealing outfits and made them into online hostesses. They dance, sing to their fans, who generously give away virtual gifts over their performance, or simply over a wink or stroking of hair.

More than 200 million people - roughly one out of every seven people on the Chinese mainland have caught the live streaming video fever, according to Ministry of Culture statistics.

In a little over a year, Fu has opened four studios, 50 online hostesses and says he's doing OK. He pulls in around 100,000 yuan a month. Some of the young hostesses are making up to four times that, thanks to their doting fans.

"Most of the patrons are single men, lacking in much real world identification, not handsome and all but invisible wherever they go. Live streaming hostesses give them companionship. Fans plug in to buy 'happiness,'" said Fu.

Ministry of Culture figures show there were 200 live streaming platforms, worth about 7.77 billion yuan at the end of last year.

Live frenzy

Ng Pan-yan did not bother looking for a job after graduating from a university in California. She came back to Hong Kong and became a hostess on YY.com, a leading live streaming platform on the mainland. She has about 1.5 million fans and makes up to hundreds of thousands of yuan a month.

She's a typical young woman, with porcelain complexion, naturally admired by Chinese men. Ng is one of only around 70 to make it into the second round of this year's Miss Hong Kong Pageant. Dressed in a pink grid shirt and light blue skirt, she sat in a Causeway Bay cafe describing her new career. She does nothing in particular, she said, sometimes it's trivial stuff. She shares her daily life, like going to a bookshop and finding a good book. She livestreams for around six hours a day, from a camera in her bedroom.

Her fans are wild about her. Messages rain down on her computer screen non-stop. Fans tell her how beautiful she is, admire her singing skills. Some want to contact her directly. Some want her as their girlfriend. Flattery is fine but the real payoff comes in the virtual "gifts" her fans send.

In YY, a token for a lollipop costs only a few cents; a flower is some HK$10; and a diamond ring, around HK$30, but for the most ardent suitors, the ultimate gift is the luxury yacht, for more than HK$2,000.

It's a hierarchical world and that, naturally, sparks competition among her admirers. Fans compete for a higher rank - earning medals - and big spenders get fanfare when they come online. They are also rewarded access to the "private window" where they can talk to the hosts directly.

Hostesses split the income from token sales with their streaming platforms. Ng said she gets a share between 20 and 30 percent. Some top hostesses reportedly earn millions of yuan every month.

Ren Changyou, a veteran operations officer who's had experience in multiple streaming providers, noted that the majority of users are single men of modest income, from third or fourth-tier cities on the mainland. They spend 300 to 500 yuan a month for streaming, Ren reflected. For some the situation gets out of control. Checking day to day user data, Ren said every now and then he comes across users spending nearly half a million yuan during the course of a night.

Most of the hostesses work as individuals, signed to particular platforms. Studios that hire full-time hosts are springing up. Fu puts his hostesses in a three-storey villa. Each has a room where they work at least six hours a day. There are crews to decorate the rooms. High quality cameras are installed, along with professional lighting. There are coaches to help them cajole regular patrons into buying more gifts.

"Chinese don't have the party culture. After work, they don't go to nightclubs to relax, nor do they have enough money to spend there anyway. Live streaming gives them a relatively low cost entertainment alternative. Previously they could only play games at home. Now they have pretty girls to watch," Ren observed.

Weirdness wins

For those who are less physically attractive, much more have to be done to attract mass audience. Many of their efforts are boorish, or far beyond the realm of good taste.

The public spotlight fell on a 45-year-old woman who calls herself "Sister Feng eats everything". She livestreams herself eating live eels, mealworms or light bulbs. There's a man who bombards his male part with firecrackers; or a 14-year-old girl who shares her new-born child with her audience.

Chinese authorities have stepped in. In April, the Ministry of Culture clamped down on "inappropriate and erotic content" on a number of popular live-streaming platforms, on grounds that they "harm social morality". Seductive banana eating, for instance, in front of a webcam is no longer permitted.

YY declares on its mobile app's interface that it maintains a 24 hours' online patrol, and that producers of erotic, violent, vulgar or other inappropriate content will be suspended or banned.

Ng echoed that hostesses offering "soft porn" or behaving seductively may be sanctioned by having their profit shares reduced a few percentage points.

The services are still riding high. Business is good. Hostesses at Fu's studios, who could only afford hotpot and small eateries before, now wear luxury attire and eat in expensive restaurants. They buy cars, houses, and settle in the big city where they can live comfortably. One of Fu's studios in Xiamen is signing some Ukrainian hosts this year. Live streaming has changed his life.

Social media that permits real-time interaction, combined with the pervasive influence of e-commerce, makes it easy for lonely people to bind a bank card to an online account, so virtual tokens can be bought online with a single click.

But as the saying goes, technology is the primary productive power, while in China, loneliness serves as a driving force for consumption.

Contact the writer at evelyn@chinadailyhk.com