China’s livestreamers use fake traffic and virtual gifts to draw real eyeballs

The practice of paying for fake accounts to boost livestream viewer counts and virtual gift purchases is an ‘open secret’ in the industry, experts say. Reasons range from pushing up live streams in recommendation rankings to earning fatter commissions from brands, but regulators are catching on. — SCMP

In 2018, when China’s livestreaming industry was growing at lightning speed, Huang Xiaobing felt her one-year career as an online live broadcaster had hit a bottleneck.

So she decided to start her own agency in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin focusing on entertainment livestreaming, managing online broadcasters who sang, danced or chatted with audiences in return for virtual gifts that could be converted to money, with the agency taking a cut.