In this episode of The Intern Diaries, reporter Amos Roberts talks about his recent story on China’s live streaming boom, which has become a multibillion dollar industry.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other popular social media sites are banned in China, so many locals have turned to alternative ways on connecting online. This demand is behind the live streaming industry’s rise, which saw it double in size in the last year.
“The key element of live streaming is that it is an amateur sort of entertainment medium, it’s extremely democratic in the sense that anyone can do it, it’s democratic in a way that most of China isn’t,” Amos tells Dateline intern Rangi Hirini.
He says several streamers are making good money, and treat it an a profession; “these are people who sort of learnt over the years what things work, what things don’t, how to attract more presence, how to address the audience, how to look, how to like yourself, what sort of jokes to tell.”
Listen to Amos’ chat with Rangi here:
Watch the full episode here:
