(Chinese Version)

Today distance no longer separates us in different parts of the world and traps us there. With the Internet, we can have “access” to the “new worlds”. For that we have a more direct impression of what lives in foreign countries are like and are able to get an exotic taste of other places.

Recently a girl with the ID Baiyunduan on live-streaming platform now went viral with her kiss collecting live show in France. Her show attracted tons of fans just within 15 days and it streams for about three hours everyday. From personal “presents”(cash reward from the viewers) Baiyunduan has attracted tens of thousand RMB and now ranks the top one live show host of the traveling channel on NOW.

In reality, Baiyunduan is one of those girls you can call ordinary, very different from those live show professional who make a living by showing their pretty face and body on live-streaming platforms. Compared with them, Baiyunduan is like a clear stream in a polluted ocean. Studying in France, Baiyunduan takes the live-streaming platform as a place where she can show viewers around in the beautiful European country.

She takes viewers to famous attractions like Palais de l'Elyseè and events like Electric Music Carnival. On her show she also interact with pedestrians and tourists, showcasing a genuine French experience. Occasionally Baiyunduan also answers questions from the viewers. However, Baiyunduan just had her boldest show just recently, on which she collected kisses from 100 handsome men in a park near the Eiffel Tower.

I have to say as a live show vegan such show does appeal to me, even though I have made ten thousand comparisons with her and ultimately deemed she is no prettier than I am. Despite all that I really like her show. She approached the hotties and joked with them in French, ending up putting lipstick on their lips and collecting their lip prints, the kisses. Then they took a selfie. Everything seemed very natural and free of the pretentious atmosphere. It’s like watching an old friend in a video, or I just simply feel like her, that I am Baiyunduan. Watching her show brings out pure happiness. I don’t know if that’s what Internet should really bring to us, but she does show me what France is like and that if I live in France what kind of life I would be having.

“I am a live show host on NOW from Shandong province. Now I live in Paris and have my own startup project. I graduated from Netherland as a International Business student. I am also a travel junkie, love to make friends with people all around the world and learn about their culture.” This is the only information you can find about Baiyunduan. So ordinary but still she went viral for some reasons.

You can say that Baiyunduan went viral for her kiss collection show. Of course that might be one of the reasons. We all remember all those similar asking for kiss on the street videos, such as the one in which a hottie asked kisses from pretty girls and succeeded. However, I should point out that those are products of the video era. In live-streaming era, on the other hand, I haven’t seen something like that so far. In my opinion, such activities are still much of a bold action for many.

Some might say this is an add of NOW. Without a doubt, as the main live-streaming product from Tencent, NOW boasts a rapid growth. You can also say this is the tendency generated by the time, as platforms are plenty but quality contents are scarce, especially in today’s entertainment for all scene. People have plenty of time to spend on watching live shows.

That does make sense. The China Online Entertainment Industry Report from iResearch shows in 2015 the scale of the online entertainment market had exceeded ¥200 billion and the number is expected to hit 377.69 billion in 2018. The report also shows that everyday people spend one hour on online entertainment on average. “It’s like people are turning to more direct and genuine live shows presented by grass-root hosts from TV shows like Approaching science etc.” That must be the reason.

However, are those the reasons for Baiyunduan’s success? To be honest, I don’t really know. Perhaps there are just things that we can’t really find a reason for them. What I do know is that Baiyunduan’s success proves three things:

1. I saw another possibility of personal live shows. You don’t need a pretty face like super models or undergo a plastic surgery. You can just share things around you just like an ordinary person and interact with your fans. And that will be all it takes. Both sides benefit from that and people make friends.

2. Live-streaming show+tourism will bring about an amazing future. Everybody wants to live somewhere else and have a different life. Live shows in some way satisfy that demand. Just imagine it, if we apply VR and AR technology in the future on those live shows, we would have a 4D experience, live streaming from the hosts! It can expected that live-streaming platforms and tourism platforms will have some moves together very soon.

3. The Matthew Effect is not obvious in this area, and it might not come that soon. The rise of grass-root hosts will bring live shows back on track. The data traffic will be reallocated to users. The number of hosts that can earn over a hundred thousand RMB per month might go down, but there will be more people that can earn over ten thousand per month.

“Recorded shows are just like meat that has been eaten by other people. You will never know who took the first bite, but as you are chewing on it, you always get the feeling that it’s not something unique.” This is the description I once saw that tells the difference between recorded shows and live shows. Perhaps it’s why people like watching live shows.

People have grown tired of all those pretentious act on recorded reality shows and those recorded shows that look like live shows. People are also sick of celebrities acting before the cameras. Now people want something real, a genuine show. People no longer care about if the host is a celebrity or not, since celebrities are just distant from our real life. As long as people are enjoying the shows, they feel happy, simple as that.

Let’s look back on Baiyunduan. Her live show on France is just like a home video filmed at a party or weekend tour. It’s just as simple as interacting with the viewers to pass time in a foreign country for her. But these simple actions brought incredible sparks between the two rather lonely groups. With the live show, they can both enjoy the exhilarating scenes.

As a matter of fact, I believe many people are just like me, we all hate live shows that are obviously aiming to make money from the viewers. We just don’t like people putting on tons of makeup or going to have plastic surgery just to have people’s attention and their cash presents. It’s like you see a fly in a fancy dish, you will find it hard to eat the dish despite the other parts are clean and nice.

Kevin Kelly wrote in his book What Technology Wants that diversity is one of the driving forces that push technological advancement. Live-streaming platforms apparently have immense application potential, and tourism live show is one of the possibilities.

Just recently, many OTAs(online travel agents)have teamed up with live-streaming platforms to launch live show + traveling products. We can expect that one day a live show host will take the viewers to different parts of the world every day and give a taste of what it is like to live in some places. I wonder just how amazing this experience could be.

“When you are brainstorming for your presentation, gadus are leaping from the water in Alaska; As you bear your head in charts and figures, golden monkey are climbing up the trunks on the Meri Snow Mountain; When you are on a crowded subway train, eagle are hovering above Tibet; While you are having a heated argument in a meeting, backpackers in Nepal are having fun with their glasses full around the bonfire; There are always roads that highheels can’t walk on, there is always air that you can never smell with your perfume on, there are always people you never meet in an office tower.”

This is one of those ads that really touched people. But in today’s live-streaming era, you can see all that with a few taps on your phone. Whether it’s golden monkies on the Meri Snow Mountain, gadus in Alaska, or eagles in Tibet, are all within reach with your smart phone on. Even though you are not by the bonfire, you can also feel the warmth of it.

As the National Holiday is about to come to an end, I wonder how many people traveling around the country or overseas are live-streaming their journey, letting people who are still working on their presentations or charts to enjoy traveling elsewhere or living elsewhere as well.

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[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Yang Junjun, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Garrett Lee (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.