China's Webcam Economy Is a Modern-Day Gold Rush
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- China is home to a rising number of professional live-streamers-webcam models who show off their talents, their faces, and their personalities to make a living. VICE China took an inside look at how some performers are making more than $100,000 during the modern-day gold rush.
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Many performers are bringing home tens of thousands of dollars - and some are even clearing six figures.
WATCH NEXT: China's Vape Industry is Just Getting Started - bit.ly/2q95RG2
Embodiment of Failure it says Dollars dude
VICE Hey why u guys ignore Japanese live streamers!? They're sometimes arrested because of antisocial acts like smashing someone's head with wall , just for audience (with a bit of personal anger
The subtitles messed up the $ and rmb. All the amount should be in rmb
I was just about to say that
VICE didn't translate the currency into USD or should say it's RMB
It's weird how capitalism/consumerism is more disturbing when you see it through the lens of a foreign culture, even though the basic mechanisms and resulting phenomena are the same (or just slightly different) in your own culture.
Ha! These people are rich and happy from consumer capitalism. How many starved in Mao's communist hellhole?
+Nate O'Donnel True, consumer capitalism has induced commodity fetishism among the masses. Nowadays the virtue of being humble is looked down upon. There is a surge of demagogues being elected globally. I wonder when/how this will change. Any ideas?
It's more vanity than capitalism fam
anono5 I wasn't specifically talking about this video.
Well at this rate capitalism will kill even more people.
Except you really believe that there are enough ressources for everyone to live that lifestyle.
It's really sad but true. People do treat people nicer when they're pretty/ attractive.
This ladies and gentlemen is what a modern day PIMP looks like. A humble guy in a simple sweater earning crazy sums of cash for putting a few girls in front of a webcam and have them talk about what they had for breakfest...
S L A D E lmfaoo well he spelt breakfast as "breakfest" don't you just love breakfests 😂
That one girl wasn't lying though. pretty people either get farther or have an advantage in life.
it's only logical
Nope. Only in immoral industries. If you work in a normal environment like dental office etc you'll be targeted by other women.
Spoken like a true ugly. haha
"immoral industries"
like banking, law and lobbying?
@@_annoyed4692 sounds immoral to me
people gets all kind of sad or disgusted when they see people in some foreign country does shit like this but funny enough all those fucking youtubers in their country are basically using this format just on different platforms.
preach that
Why are people disliking this? This is really well done and informative
Probably because it's entirely in Chinese audio and Americans hate reading
americans hate reading and hate most things Chinese haha
Except Chinese food.
haha
There country is majority owned by China these days, most of their products too. X'D
Lmao they mixed in a korean porn streamer with these other girls just to make it look more shady... nice job
Park Nima
James Ong you must watched it a lot.
丁畅 It's good stuff.
who where what
库兹涅佐夫尼古拉·格拉西莫维奇· ahahhaahha
I don't know why but this just made me feel uncomfortable.
Openingband your not alone...
the chinese'll do that
Its all bad. I know there are also many South Koreans and other asians doing this stuff.
TYKX I agree and I also like your profile pic :3
+Bishplis Yeah, it's either do this or work in a factory for 12+ hours every day and get hardly any money in return. Chinese society seems really fucked up to be honest. No wonder so many of them move to other countries.
I was visiting China as a Canadian, I remember that strange feeling of being forgotten by the whole world when I was surrounded with people.
I thought it was sweet that designer was so touched by the impact she had on people... such a wonderful fan and kind designer
Warning, the subtitles did not do the proper currency conversion for the numbers of profit and monthly wages. You should convert it yourself by dividing all numbers by 7 as $1 USD ~ $7RMB
Understandable, have a wonderful day.
Matthew Sutton
Short, to the point comment. lol
f00d broke
this comment shows how moron your are
The fact that you cant form a proper sentence says more about you buddy
There is a mistake about all the prices and money numbers. Subtitles show them in $ while they are talking in RMB...
Sakatland So that 100000 Chinese currency is about USD$14500
Sakatland I kind of assumed they weren't talking about USD when they said one of the streamers was making $100k+ a month.
I'm pretty sure they converted it already for the subs, dude.
they didnt
as a person who speaks bit of Chinese I can confirm that VICE didn't convert those numbers into USD
This is really just a strip club with adds and better lighting.
I'm not so sure about there being nudity though, like with (sex worker) webcam girls
Maria Climent True, but the only asset they are having is beauty, these girls are not really entertainers, just good looking
The difference to porn is, the streamers can be seen like friends or girlfriends because they act as if they share their everyday life and they are online almost every day. Also you can make them notice you and say your name by giving them money. Some creepy guys like it when a young girl does what they tell them to do when they give them money. Most of their income is made from lonely people who are not capable of forming real relationships and/or men who are to ugly to get a girlfriend. Even though they also have to build a persona and kind of entertain their audience, their biggest asset is how they look because even when people want to act as though they have a friendly relationship to someone they only want to have that with a person that looks good and young. Most of them are not good entertainers, they wouldn't make it as a stand-up comedian or a commentator, people mostly watch them because they can pretend to have a good looking friend.
Porn is illegal in china
These girls are 1 step from being sex workers
Those girls have nice...*personalities*
it's just the ...act
Big Bang - if you
you really are everywhere Woojong ahaha
her vocals were ROUGH
Woojong with the Word I also heard EXID - up and down at 2:50.
Although its mean I must say her rendition was horrendous!!She wasn't even following the original tempo let alone the vocal tone!!
3:20 "As long as you are pretty, guys will be willing to lick your shoes."
I'm really surprised that the live streamers have this whole industry behind it. I thought it's just people who decide to stream their talent and build up their fanbase themselves.. but they have to audition and train for it and everything! 😱 I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the thought that there's a bunch of young girls in bedrooms with a camera whilst one man oversees everything... I'm hoping it's not as dodgy as I think it is 😅
2:51 omg EXID is shaking
So is Big Bang. lol
i wasnt too keen on the bigbang cover
Actually exid is ok
issa joke
“There has to be a man here”
In a lot of Asian countries stalking isn't taken as seriously as it is here in America at least. So a lot of girls that expose themselves to a large male audience, end up having stalkers and end up putting themselves In Harm's Way. Still yes it is smart to have a male living in the dorm with them just in case anybody tries anything.
It was just a joke
Sorry but biologically men has the upper hand and it's terrible that some men would use that to their advantage so having another dude there could help induce stalkers to back off.
its mostly due to the fact that china is still a bit sexist and if stalkers only saw a group of women they are more likely to rush in and do reckless things if they see a man they might think twice and confrontation can be avoided all together
Yihua Pu those girls probably put in a lot of effort into maintaining their thin figure, its what makes them profitable as streamers. i doubt they can fend anyone off with chopstick legs :L
When university doesn't work out.
I have diploma but I wish I was hot girl. If so life would be x100 times easier. I'll pimp the shit out of myself tbh.
Make a shit tone of money just being yourself, sounds truly horrible doesn't it
my gf does this she makes like 6k a month for just talking... all these idiot men giving money to my gf and she just spends it on us lol
Lets Think Globally wait...so...you’re actually letting your gf cheat on you? Yikes, what a beta. Also depending on her to get you money too.
Thank God my third world home country still not too money oriented.
Ironically the prettiest girl was the journalist herself
rustypwns CASIOPEA!!
I agree!
She's pretty, but not by Chinese standards apparently. But she's pretty to me 😁
Agree! She is more natural looking.
the girl that's a commentator is also really pretty.
I've never thought of streaming as something you train for...
Now you think about these RUclipsrs and twitch streamers again :D
one of the cam girls they showed was korean not chinese
She was the only "cam girl". The rest of these people are just live streamers.
Canadian here- well put and informative! Interesting to see different cultures. Beauty is not everything, but if it gets food on the table and people are willing to donate money I see no problem! We are all doing something for money. Don't be so closed-minded! Have a good one.
seems like kpop is really influential in their entertainment. From the girl dancing to EXID- up and down to that one girl singing Big bangs song but in chinese,
Why are people shitting on what these girls do? If that's how they make money then more power to them. Besides, most of them don't stay in the industry forever. They do it for a few months to a few years then get 'regular' jobs. Frankly, I think most people bitching are just jealous they're not making $100k a month.
cinderellacomplex7 100k reminbi, not us đollar. 100k reminbi~15kUSD
Which is still a lot...
15k a month, is already rich in China, considering the lower living expenses
John Smith It is for the top 1%, others can only make 300-400$. And the job has a lot of risk, since its lifespan is only about 5~7yrs, when you are old, you are out.
can you make 15k usd a month lmao. I wanna see the source for that ^
So basically Instagram models but on Chinese platforms
no just twitch titty streamers
@@Phendoxia twitch streamers are a better analogy
13:39 - Spelling error on the model's shirt "Beauful" and "Differnet" in the closed captioning.
well spotted David.
Im sure these girls are showing "their personalities to make a living", yeah.. lets call it "personality".
Talents
^nice, they're slightly better than the camgirls in the US
Troll Bot Such as...
I'm little confused u see singing Instruments. wtf. who's gonna pay u for that. I know they r showing their sexual parts it looks super cool how the screen is Made up
They are free to do whatever they want, be this if that’s what they want, and if people are willing to pay and support them, why not, good for them.
I think the prettiest girl in this video is the host. I can imagine her being on the cover of Vogue because of how unique she looks, she is just so beautiful! All the other girls look the same, nothing special at all. I still think people should be their authentic self, that's so much more beautiful than face.
Welcome to other side of the world with totaly different beauty standard for asian women, especially Chinese women.
You have a channel about guides on frigging *makeup* . _Literally_ , showing people *how to mask their true face* in order to make it *more appealing* . I mean, I get the whole "political correctness" aspect of your work. You are not able to just go around saying "cover up your ugliness with these 5 easy tips", but _coooome oooon_ !
@@cyberlord64 Logical consistency isn't the strongest point of most women.
just wanna point out here that not all women wear makeup as a "mask" or to make it more appealing but some also do it bc it's fun, can be a stress relief, and tbh it's art lol
tho there's also nothing wrong w wearing makeup bc it makes someone more confident. to be fuckin honest the biggest logical inconsistency is people who say looks don't matter but then shame/judge people for wearing makeup/getting cosmetic surgery lmao
also how does changing one's appearance correlate to not being their authentic self, as long as their values/beliefs/personality doesn't change just bc they got a new nose, then
shrug
Yeah sure. That is why you have a make-up channel faking your face. So authenthic. Don't be so romantic.
Honestly more power to them, they livin that bank when I can barely afford rent
Gotta love that Windows Macbook at 12:00
HWOOAAT?! You're right!
Conor, take the stick out of your ass.
It is possible to run WIndows on a mac ;)
you can have windows settings on macbooks
Ever heard of boot camp?
There is a mistake in the video. It's not 100,000 dollars a month. It is supposed to be 100,000 RMB, which is approximately 14,285 dollars a month. And actually all the currency in the video should be Chinese currency, not USD.
they sensationalize things....so that people get shocked
Mohit Thakur as of 15000 a month isn’t a lot
what do you expect next best thing when porn is banned in your country
Lol agreed
When you're Chinese and don't need subtitles haha
Eugene. L same here
The subtitles are so misleading sometimes
How so
Really? Did you go to school in China? Otherwise, I doubt you can understand more than 80% of what they are saying, especially the more formal language
John Smith who you talking to lol I'm Chinese😂
You lucky duck
So this is female gamers on twitch, minus the video games?
Concise, comprehensive and objective. Thank you for this great video. This 17 minutes was worth it.
These actually started in Korea first. The platform was called "Afreeca TV" and these live streamers are "bjs(broadcasting Jockey)" Watchers can send cash gifts. Probably you might have heard of "meokbahng" which is streaming a person's eating food live and ppl watch it. That is one of many types of live streamings. I guess China has way more ppl and huge market for that. Feel so sorry for Chinese's taking a lot of trash culture from Korea, especially all about girls' looks kinda culture.
*afreecatv
oh, my bad!! Thanks! I corrected it!
Seth what are you going on about good sir? i cant find the racist name.
Seth ironically that's pretty racist and insenstive/ignorant of you to say hun
I thought JenniCam from 1996 was the first of this sort of thing. CamGirls are a thing in the US, too; they have been for a long time. Sure, mukbang started in South Korea, but it’s not exclusively female. There are a lot of popular male mukbang streamers like BJ Patoo and Banzz. It’s not entirely sexual either. A lot of people use mukbang as way to feel like they’re eating meals with someone.
I think the reporter is so pretty! Her face is so high fashion looking!!
How is this any different from Insta "models" peddling various products?
All of the women they featured had a "machine" behind them. Which makes me wonder how much money do they actually get to keep? I also wonder are there people who build up their own following, and what is it like for them to compete in a market that is so corporatized.
theyre making this seem like a shady business, but in reality the streamers in china do not do anything suggestive or sexual, they put in clips of korean porn streamers to make it seem more shady, disliked.
None of the currency value in video is actually converted. So when it says that in the video that they make $120,000 in a month, that’s 120,000RMB which is Chinese currency.
七到八十万RMB不属于700，000 美元啊。。。。
700,000 rmb is not equal to 700,000 dollars.....
I really like the host of the second part of the documentary. It started off with webcam girls, but went into social media fashion marketing (which I guess is all interconnected). This kind of culture is manifesting in the US as well, but it's on a different level/moving at a different speed in China due to the sheer number of people.
If you want an interessting book about this kind of phenomena, read :
Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl
It might be a good idea to convert the amount of money the interviewees are saying from RenMinBi to dollars, instead of just adding a dollar sign to the amount they say, because the actual amounts they say and what the subtitles are are actually very different.
When she say 七八十万 (70000-80000) in mandarin, she might say it in yuan/RMB. But the subs just state it $70000 instead of RMB 70000.
Fyi 100 usd equal 640 rmb. (NOV 2021)
the plastic surgery part was heartbreaking as they seemed to think that all their problems will go away once they do it!! The vloger and entrepreneurs where to only inspiring ones at this piece as they are working hard doing something they like. I mean imagine working 9-5 at a job you don't like+ its pressures(workload,mistreatment..etc). I also envied them as most people aren't so lucky to find their passion/dream that early on.The factory workers though..
The research in this is so well done, not just talking about these popular women but also about online fashion industry and also the plastic surgery failures involved.
3:45 wow that was intense
wow that blogger gal almost cried when she read her fan's album... say what you want about those gals, but they're still human beings with human feelings
"this is KAKAs room" hahaha
This is not just China this is happening globally especially with Twitch now.
I'm pretty sure most of those girls in the beginning of the video (the cam girls) are Korean...
I've seen the girl at 1:01 before; I was pretty sure people said she was Korean, when I saw her x about of years ago. The other girls may be Chinese, but they still could be Korean with a Chinese audience, possibly.
Characters in Japan are referred to as Kanji, with Chinese, they are referred to as Hanzi.
Kanji is mostly traditional Chinese characters, and when they have simplifications, they are slightly different than simplified Chinese characters(which are used in mainland China; Traditonal is used in Taiwan and Hongkong), like having a different stroke order as an example.
Some of them are, not all of them I think
+DeOrangeAlligator
""""""""""Kanji""""""""""
She's Park Nima, Korean BJ (broadcast jockey). She's all over western porn sites.
Why do the subtitles say “$”? I’m assuming that because this is filmed in China the people in this video are giving figures in Chinese yuan, not the American dollar.
3:19 Luhan... Did you quit EXO to become a webcam girl...?
Kayla Morris where?
Whoever wrote this video's script in Chinese did a great job that the English subtitles aren't even up to par. Nice job!
So basically China's answer to Twitch?
anyone else get pumped when they showed the LCS stage?
Still don't understand why people with a BS and years of work experience are making pennies compared to Online personalities who make 25k-100k a month
This is capitalism. Work that make people happy tend to get higher income. Entertainers (actors/singers....will always get more money than the average guy with degree)
The reporter didn’t need any surgery. She’s actually gorgeous
please make more documentaries on drugs... theyre the most interesting and ive watched them all (some even twice or 3x) already..
Yes, please stop making documentaries about different cultures, rising markets, and foreign interests. They're so boring!!
(sarcasm)
+James Ward he never said to stop making documentaries not about drugs
While on drugs right?
golden slaughterer drugs are way better when you use them vs watching them on a video
um im not really about that life, I find the documentaries entertaining though
I think the amount mentioned here is in local currency (RMB). Not sure why the dollar sign is used here. It's a bit misleading in terms of the actual amount?
Anyone see them do a cover of 'If You' by BIGBANG and a dance over of EXID 'Up & Down'?
I see a K-pop lover here aha
I liked this type of video! She did a lovely job of reporting it as well.
i am disturbed that park nima is here when she is korean
The look on the host's face when the girl starts crying is priceless.
So some old man is profiting off of these girls by exploiting them. He's basically doing nothing that the girls can't do on their own. They should just dump him in a trash can and rent an apartment together. (I'm referring to the first part of this video btw.)
He is like an security agent
No he isn't actually.
Actually he does a lot. The internet influencer industry is highly developed, with every face girl, there is a large team that helps her monetarize the influence, contacting factories to custom make products, doing her scripts, hiring teachers, nailing ads deals and all that. They don't just share those details of the business to journalists. It's online business, everyone can do streaming, there is no exploitation because they can easily switch agents, or simply manage their business themselves. It's like saying movie stars agents are exploiting them.
Quite honestly - the reporter was the prettiest of them all.
1:24 For some reason I'm cringing at them not shaking hands
MrTristan Im a Chinese，i call it culture shorck
MrTristan it's better like this , i hate occurred handshakes 😖 .
MrTristan Japanese people do not shake hands either. They bow
Fkingpeter wang - I know, that's kind of the point of my comment eh. To express that.
I feel you, as a Finn we always shake hands so it would probably be hard for me to introduce myself in Asia, trying to hold back not shaking their hand.
Chinese is so obsessed with beauty, ive seen 13 year olds get their double eyelids. But she is a really nice person and skilled at drawing.
I'm dissapointed by my country, I wanna become a pimp in the future
as an english speaker learning Chinese I greatly appreciate the english subtitles instead of english voiceovers
i hate peoples who sacrifice their dignity and "soul" for beauty
not just for beauty, for money too! oh wait, let me get back to you
*picks up phone call*
hi student loan services, would it be possible to pay off my loans with dignity and moral compass?
no? dignity and moral compass doesnt count a source of payment?.....
rickiex love your reply.
WorldMess fucking savage xd
And how exactly are they sacrificing their "soul" and dignity?
The "soul" is an archetype in western culture that was advantageous for our ancestors in selection (mostly sexual selection). Westerners traditionally value "truth" i.e maintaining a core truth in your behavior, approaching things head on (e.g we value eye contact vs the Japanese who do not). It's hard to pinpoint what "soul" is but we know the point of being truthful to yourself is that it is biologically advantageous.
In this case, it isn't advantageous on a biological level to artificially beautify people, because that beauty won't be reflected in their offspring. It's a very myopic thing to do. Plastic surgery benefits the individual, but not society as a whole.
In general, our ability to manipulate pretty much every aspect of life (evolving medical sciences, transportation, propagation of information, etc.) is considered to be a good thing, what people fail to realize is that humans aren't capable of understanding all the ramifications of their actions and as such, this rapid technological advancement is nothing but a road towards destruction. On a rational level people can't understand this, how could we? But on a spiritual level we can, because our archetypal heroes would never do this. (what used to be christian archetypes is somewhat still alive in superhero comics, they adapted the archetypes) Superman, or Superwoman wouldn't use plastic surgery, etc.
We know it's wrong, hence why we attribute "soul" to someone who stays true to their initial self. But since most people are hardcore atheists now we don't believe in "wrong". "wrong" is just an opinion now. I know this first hand as a formal "nihilist". Of course you want plastic surgery, plastic surgery makes people look nicer, looking nicer makes my dick harder, harder dick makes me feel good, this is chimp behavior, are we really that dumb?
Just a thought!
China is a scary place m8
Daniel Ponciano Diaz not only China m8
Korea actually started the whole webcam industry and a lot of beauty standards in China are imported from Korea.
that last shot showing the factory workers though... sums it all
They take their work seriously and honor it. Even if they get paid peanuts..
I see comments like “oh wow this is a cultural shock to me” and I’m here like cut the bull. This isn’t really a shock, they’re Internet celebrities like youtubers or famous Instagram celebrities/ models. They all go live stream... (I do admit the part where they have to live together was kinda weird)
I'm gay
AMINAL mmm
conpamy
crinimal
nedicime
dymanic
eyyy thats pretty immoral of you.
I'm beginning to believe that gay men are the lucky ones, at least in the developed world.
AMINAL you can't be gay in China 🇨🇳
The reporters mandarin was so good. Wow.
use ￥, not $ ..
Japan use Yen (￥). Not China.
+Jordan they are represented by the same symbol in different widths.
Does ANYONE know what the song playing at 16:26 is??? I need it!! Thank you
that interviewer is prettier then every girl there, she has a respectable career. she's not a fucking twit, and she is way more intelligent then any girl in the video
Not true at all
LittleRainGames so true tbh
she is not even close to how pretty those girls are imo
I find her more attractive than the models also.
i totally agree with your statement
2:51 AYYY EXID UP & DOWN! 💖
kacka means shit in german
2sp00ky4m3 # sheisse means shit in German too
2sp00ky4m3 # Caca is poop is Spanish too. lol
2sp00ky4m3 # scheizer
That model at 10:49 succesfully managed to turn herself in to 90's Drew Barrymore. Amazing!
this is so childish
3:46 big bang could never
Sum ting wong ...
The translation is not correct for much of the numbers. They are talking in RMB, but in the subtitles, VICE translates it to $ (USD) which is incorrect. They did not earn around $20 million to $50 million. They earned between 20 million RMB and 50 million RMB, not USD.
Normally I dont mind reading subtitles but I feel that here a voiced translation would have made it easier to watch.
yes it was a bit challenging since this doc was very visually centered so you couldn't really look at what they were showing and read at the same time
Muhammad Ahad Asian pros wont do Arabs,Paks,Indians,or Blacks.
That's because you're not used to reading subtitles. You don't spend more than 1s reading a line, it becomes just as normal as breathing or blinking after a while.
Typical of native english speaking people
Good video. It was just very hard to keep up with the subtitles. Can you do them in Yellow. I never got why so many use white subtitles which not only blend with colors but don't draw the eye like yellow. Also, I'd consider a different font with less spacing. When I turned on the youtube captions on proportional serif, it became far easier to read because it wasn't stretched over such a large area.
China is obsessed with beauty. It's very different compared to us in the west. The paler you are, the prettier you are. A lot of Chinese girls want to look European. But, Chinese girls are arguably probably the prettiest girls in the world.
If you ever visit southern Asian countries (Thailand for example), take a look at Chinese girls. While it's +35C outside, they still wear long sleeves and cover their heads with towels.
And this kind of business is not really weird. China is huge and not just that, it was not open to the world for very long, so the way it's built is that it's a world of its own. China really doesn't need the rest of the world, it doesn't care about the rest of the world. China does what China wants and that's why it's one of my favourite countries in the world.
I'm gonna have to go with Black women
Almost all these women are ugly. I do like chinese culture none the less.
me too. These women look sickly and skinny.
Seth CCP≠CHINA
At least it's better than the shit hole you're from, Seth, now fuck off.
Live Webcams are popular all over the web. I don't know why people are surprised?
Capitalism is king
I wonder why Fang Gulu is singing in Korean (at the 3:55 mark)?
WAIFUUU
Come on VICE, next time you do a documentary in a country where they don't use USD just pls calculate the exchange rate and then put that in the subtitle, especially when the two currencies are really different in value, eg that 30 million compensation should've been about 4.35 million USD, it really makes a difference in viewers understanding
even the photographer is FOOKEN PRETTY