MCLC: live interactive web entertainment

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: live interactive web entertainment
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Source: NYT (4/17/14):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/business/media/lucrative-stardom-in-china
-using-a-webcam-and-a-voice.html

Lucrative Stardom in China, Using a Webcam and a Voice
By DAVID BARBOZA

ZIGONG, China — Dolled up with makeup and a blond wig, the pretty young
Chinese woman sat at home in her bedroom on a quiet Sunday evening and
began singing karaoke.

A large microphone and three webcams clipped to a desktop monitor streamed
the performance over the Internet, to thousands of fans who knew her only
by her stage name, Poison.

“Hey, Big Brother!” she greeted one fan in between songs. “Did you just
get back from vacation in Sanya or are you watching on a laptop?”

Poison, 26, still lives with her parents and her dogs Blueberry and DuDu
in a modest apartment. But she is one of the most popular attractions in a
thriving new business in China: live interactive web entertainment.

Media and technology companies across the globe have tried for years to
attract viewers en masse to live Internet broadcasts, with X-rated
websites the only real success stories. China, though, appears to have
cracked the code. Millions are now tuning in every night to watch karaoke
performances, comedy skits and talk shows — moving beyond the common web
fare of scantily clad women doing erotic dances.

The shows are typically low-budget productions by amateur entertainers who
work out of tiny apartments, fitted with webcams. And viewers spend large
sums online to buy credits to give virtual gifts of roses, chocolates and
Chanel bags to performers, who receive a slice of the revenue from
Internet companies.

The strategy offers a potential path for the rest of the world, which is
struggling to move profitably into online programming. Services like
Netflix and iTunes have prompted some consumers to drop cable. But viewers
in the United States and elsewhere are largely sticking with traditional
television for live shows.

Given the government restrictions on all manner of media, consumers in
China seem more willing to go online for movies, music and even
role-playing fantasy games. State-run television — with its steady diet of
propaganda, game shows and stale dramas — just doesn’t offer the same
variety.

The websites mix video feeds with streaming-text commentary from the
audience. In the upper left corner of the screen is a running count of how
many viewers are in the virtual concert hall. Digital cars — representing
the V.I.P.s who spend large sums — speed in and out of the imaginary hall.

“I’ve spent more than $15,000 in each of the past two years,” says Mi
Tian, a 29-year-old architect from Shandong Province. “I’ve given virtual
gifts to basically every performer I’ve watched.”

The leader in China in this industry is a fast-growing start-up called
YY.com. It has 92 million monthly active users and more than a million
channels.

David Li, YY’s 40-year-old co-founder and chief executive, says live web
entertainment is transforming an industry that has been savaged by
copyright infringement and online file-sharing services.

“Now we’ve found a whole new way to rejuvenate the music industry,” Mr. Li
said. “This will help entertainers make money.”

Investors are betting he’s right. Shares of YY have soared 500 percent
since the company’s public offering on the Nasdaq stock market in late
2012.

YY was the vanguard for other Chinese webcasters considering listings in
the United States, 6.cn <http://6.cn/> and 9158.com <http://9158.com/>.
And while some critics dismiss it as a fad, Sina and Tencent, two of
China’s biggest Internet companies, have jumped on the bandwagon with
their own live karaoke shows.

The companies have latched onto a new business model: turning amateur
entertainers into live broadcasters who control their own programming, and
offering them revenue-sharing deals to split the proceeds from virtual
gifts, an idea adopted from the gaming industry. Instead of 100 or 500
channels, there are millions, each with a person creating his or her own
live content.

“This is something on the border of movies and video games,” says Eric
Wen, an analyst at China Renaissance. “It’s a challenge to the Hollywood
model, which, because of copyright theft, didn’t really work in China.”

None of this was by design. YY began as an online community dedicated to
World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment’s popular role-playing fantasy
game. And 6.cn started as a video-sharing site, much like YouTube.

When faster Internet speeds arrived in China, video sharing gave way to
live broadcasting. The early adopters were online gamers. Then came
singers, DJs, hip-hop dancers and comedians.

The viewers tend to be single men in smaller locales with fewer
entertainment options. Many are wealthy enough to spend thousands of
dollars to get the V.I.P. privilege of driving a virtual Lamborghini
Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster to and from the virtual concert halls during
performances. They pay $1,100 for the privilege.

“People don’t understand why Chinese spend so much money like this, but
it’s partly cultural,” said Yan Liu, the chief executive of 6.cn. “Even in
the time of Peking Opera, performers were paid with gifts.”

The most popular performers are female “hostesses,” many of whom practice
the art of sexual tease.

“What is it about me that attracts you guys? Is it my thighs or something
else?” one hostess asks on YY. Viewers can respond in real time, through
text or voice message with comments like this: “Can you imagine what it
would be like if she stripped her dress off?” They never do, though the
women often show lots of skin and cleavage.

Critics have complained about the corrupting influence of the live shows,
which sometimes feature lewd behavior. But YY and its competitors insist
they abide by the law, which forbids nudity or even behaviors that
“generate sexual fantasies.”

“We have very clear rules on behavior,” said Mr. Li at YY.

Live web shows are empowering amateur entertainers, some of whom can now
earn $90,000 annually, nearly 30 times the average Chinese salary.

One of the most successful lives here in Zigong, a midsize city in a
mountainous region of southwest China. “Just call me Poison,” she says
when asked her real name.

From a run-down apartment complex, Poison often performs live for more
than 10,000 online viewers a night (a birthday concert once drew 36,000
viewers), making her one of the most popular performers on YY’s
Entertainment channel. Her popularity earned her a mention in the I.P.O.
prospectus YY sent to investors. A former dancer, office clerk and online
gaming enthusiast, Poison began performing karaoke on 6.cn several years
ago before being recruited to YY.

“The reason I’m doing this is simple. I wanted to be a singer since I was
a little girl, but there wasn’t a way I could do it,” she says putting on
eyeliner before a performance.

Just before her nightly show begins, around 8, she sits on her bed,
surrounded by toy animals, staring at her computer monitor to see what
viewers can see. She uses a special webcam to create candy-colored hues
around her online image, strokes the locks on her blond wig, and selects
karaoke tunes, favoring a mix of Cantonese love songs and theme songs from
online games.

A bottle of water and a roll of toilet paper are by her side to deal with
thirst and a runny nose. And then her three-hour live show begins, right
from the edge of her bed.

“Hi everyone,” she says after going live with an audience that soon that
night reached 15,000 people. “Did you miss me while I was away?”

Stephanie Yifan Yang contributed research.