Fake accounts
Webcasting platforms are attracting not only webcasters and audiences, but also entrepreneurs and analysts. Kong Qingxun is a young entrepreneur and popular responder on zhihu.com, a Chinese question and answer website.
He registered accounts on several webcasting platforms like Yingke (ingkee.com), Huajiao (http://www.huajiao.com/), and Yizhibo. As a user and a researcher, he not only watches other webcasters' shows, but also webcasted himself. In his trial webcasts, Kong had one big surprise.
"Every time I began webcasting, I would immediately have 21 viewers watching my show. They were all silent, they never left no matter what I did during the webcast and their account IDs all started with '400'," Kong said. "Furthermore, these users were fans of a great number of other webcasters. Another thing they had in common was they never gave gifts. I eventually realized that they were fake accounts created by the webcast platforms," Kong said.
Kong wanted to test this further so he invited a friend to watch his webcast. When his friend logged on to the show, a dozen other users followed him and joined the show immediately. He said these were also fake accounts - these users never left the webcast as long as it lasted. They stayed "watching" Kong even after Kong's friend left. When Kong invited another friend to view his webcast, the number of viewers grew to 59.
However, from beginning to the end there were only two real users (his friends) and the other 58 were all fake accounts.
Wang investigated further and wrote about his experiences in an article for his WeChat Public account. "The platform showed that 905 users were watching a webcaster's show, but the number of real users was only seven. The platform showed that over 2,000 users were watching another show, but the number of real users was only about 50."
Kong believes that even if the number of fake users has changed, the platforms created these accounts to observe all of the webcasts.
Another user, a Mr Wang, echoed Kong's theory. Wang works in advertising and has watched a lot webcasts.
Wang began his own webcast after registering an account on Yingke. The minute he began webcasting, he had 21 viewers. "So fast? Is it because that I am so good-looking?" Wang asked.
A blackout
The second time, Wang pointed his camera at the desk instead of his face. Even though the screen was blacked out for his webcast, 21 people seemed to be watching.
He checked the account information of each of the 21 viewers, and found out that all their account IDs started with "4000." Even when he abused them they never apparently left his webcast.
Then, Wang asked his girlfriend to enter the webcast as a real viewer. The minute his girlfriend entered the webcast, the number of viewers soared to 61. Wang also believes that all these new viewers were not real people.
Many users like Kong and Wang had previously known about these fake platform accounts but never bothered to publicly disparage them.
Webcaster Yue also knows about the fake accounts on the platforms. But she thinks that this might not be a bad thing. "When I first began to webcast, I had no fans. There would be moments when suddenly dozens of viewers entered my show. I guess these viewers were fake accounts. I think it's just a way that platforms encourage webcasters. On the other hand, they might be using these fake accounts as a way to promote their own platforms, showing there are plenty of viewers on the platforms," Yue said.
But some analysts and experts do not agree. Zhang Jun is a columnist working with Chinese business information and studies exchange platform huxiu.com and other sites like http://www.leiphone.com/. He has written over a dozen analytical reports about the IT industry this year.
Losing patience
"There are more people now saying that the webcasting platforms are faking data. If we find out one day that the astonishing user numbers and profits are all fake or created by the platforms, the result would be terrible. The market would lose patience in webcasting," Zhang said.
Zhang thinks that the bubble of webcasting platforms will eventually burst. "Chinese people like jumping into one thing all at the same time. The webcasting bubble will burst, but webcasting will continue. I think that webcasting will become a common function on many other platforms, like the photo sharing or video sharing functions in social networks. Perhaps, four or five big platforms will survive, and the others will vanish."
He believes that the next contest will be about webcasting content. The platforms that offer better streams than Internet celebrity shows, design better business models and find better content providers will succeed.
Wang Yue also believes that the future of webcasting platforms will be decided by creative content. "Currently, all the webcasting platforms have similar video streams and lack individual features. Relying on the webcasters to attract users and interactivity is not promising," Wang said. She believes that those who can provide high-quality content will eventually win.
"People often link webcasting to indecency or pretty faces, but I think soon webcasting will be more than just Internet celebrities and appearances," webcaster Yue Xi said.
