This weekend, through various platforms we could see dozens and dozens of streamers, very well equipped (actually equipped, because what you see is an immense majority of women) with their ideal materials for creating live broadcasts and content in general for social networks, sitting on the ground under a bridge. The images are shocking.
More than anything because it is really possible to see that many of these people have expensive materials to carry out their tasks, while sitting on the ground in a rich neighborhood.
J/K What’s going on is they are gaming the location feature. Streaming platforms allow users to search locally- wealthier neighborhoods mean much higher donations because of the perceived availability of the streamer. Also we just like groups and company- and they co-lab😁 pic.twitter.com/8LKMipfl1r
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) February 11, 2023
The question that arose was: what are they doing there? Why are people sitting on the ground in a wealthy neighborhood in China? The answers are shocking: the algorithm of some platforms boosts its visibility in areas of high purchasing power, if the streamer is located there.
Therefore, for these streamers it is important to make themselves known among the upper class of the country, in order to later access the economic contributions that the audience decides to make when you are happy with a content.
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The question: is it only China, or is it worldwide?
In an open discussion on Reddit, a user says that he forgot that in China things work differently. To which another responds that this is not something exclusive to the Asian country and that “it is more or less the same code for preparing the location”, since social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram do something similar.
Says Naomi Wu, a streamer and YouTuber who is famous for her 3D-printed creations, among other things, that “what happens is that they are messing with the location feature” since “streaming platforms allow users to search locally: wealthier neighborhoods translate into much larger donations.”
That is, the platforms allow followers to search for streamers based on their location. This in Spain, in networks known as Twitch, is not possible, since privacy and security laws do not allow it. Still, there are nuances. Because you can know on many occasions where an influencer is from and according to Naomi Wu, who has been in this business for years, in general, “even in the United States people will give more money to a Twitch streamer from their city/country than one from abroad”.
The most used platforms in China are iQiYi.com (owned by Baidu), qq.com (owned by Tencent) or Youku.com (owned by Alibaba). Amazon’s Twitch is not among the most popular in the Asian country.
Naomi herself says that “the income can be quite good, although most (of these streamers) also have a job.” In addition, being on the street recording in this case is not dangerous. On the one hand, because there are many streamers together so a stalker “would be caught instantly.” As seen in the images, almost all of these streamers who are conducting their live shows and their content are women and everyone already knows that women can be subject to street harassment.
Furthermore, Wu herself says that the police, who in China can be very restrictive and authoritarianin this case they appear to tell them to leave, but there are no records of arrests for this matter.
He Streamer Nil Ojeda has baptized these people “cyber beggars” which has given rise to another debate on Twitter.
