33: Chapter 33 No Revenue from Douyin Live Stream?

Xicheng, Nanshan District.

Inside a detached villa, coal boss Qian Yuan was slumped on the leather sofa in the living room, his fingers aimlessly swiping across his phone screen.

Having recently graduated and inherited several mines from his father, Qian Yuan's life creed was just one sentence: "Money is just paper."

After Douyin exploded in popularity, he naturally became addicted to Short Video entertainment.

But recently...

He had been depressed for several days due to a failed investment.

Right now, he was absentmindedly swiping through several videos; his fingers moved mechanically upward, and his eyes weren't focused at all.

Then he swiped into a live stream room.

On the screen was a girl sitting quietly in a rented room, her hair in a low ponytail, wearing a light gray hoodie, with a guitar placed in front of her.

She didn't speak, just lowered her head to tune the strings, occasionally looking up at the bullet comments, her lips curling into a slight smile before pulling back, as if it were her first time streaming and she wasn't yet used to smiling at the camera.

After tuning the strings, she played a gentle prelude and then began to sing a very old folk song.

Her voice wasn't particularly professional, but it was as clean as a glass of plain boiled water with a slice of lemon.

Qian Yuan's finger stopped on the screen.

He stared at the girl's profile for a long time.

It wasn't because she sang so well, but because when she lowered her head to tune the strings, her brow would furrow slightly, and that curve was exactly the same as his first love's.

His first love was a high school classmate; that girl also liked to wear gray hoodies and had an old guitar whose strings hadn't been changed in a long time.

Qian Yuan opened the gift menu and sent all the most expensive gifts one by one.

An airplane, a sports car, a castle.

The special effects on the screen exploded so much that the bullet comments became illegible.

The girl was stunned when she saw the gifts and leaned closer to the screen to check the sender's ID.

"Thank you... Qian Yuan? I don't think I know this person. Thank you." Qian Yuan's ID was just his own name.

Her voice was a bit nervous; it was likely her first time receiving so many gifts, and she didn't know what to say.

But she didn't exaggerate like professional streamers by reading IDs, making heart gestures, or blowing kisses; she just seriously read out his name and then lowered her head to continue playing the guitar.

Qian Yuan sent two more castles.

The girl sang four songs, and he sent nearly ten thousand yuan worth of gifts.

The bullet comments were going crazy, but he didn't send a single message from start to finish, only clicking "Follow" at the end.

When the girl saw the follow notification, she read his name again and said he was a very good viewer.

Qian Yuan placed his phone on his chest and stared at the ceiling in a daze for a while.

...

At the same time.

After Douyin launched live streaming for everyone.

The operations teams of Douyu and Huya were also monitoring these statistics.

An executive at Huya sent a message in an internal group: "Who watches ordinary people stream? Without signed streamers, there's no traffic. Traffic depends entirely on platform recommendations; it'll die down in a few days."

A long string of agreements followed in the group.

Douyu's operations team said almost the exact same thing in another group: "The live streaming industry relies on top-tier streamers to drive traffic and mid-tier streamers for retention. Ordinary people streaming is no different from talking to thin air."

Douyin's model of everyone streaming is, at most, just a passing fad; once the novelty wears off, no one will play along.

The number of daily streamers on Douyin broke into five digits within a few days and then stabilized at around ten thousand.

Over the next month.

A huge number of Douyin users had swiped into and watched their favorite live content for a period of time.

The proportion of Douyin users watching live streams daily was also climbing simultaneously, and recordings of Douyin streamers' live sessions often trended on the hot search lists.

An uncle selling fried rice noodles at a night market was edited into a kuso video because his wok-tossing technique was so cool, and it reached over twenty million views.

A caregiver at a nursing home who played chess with the elderly was reposted over a million times for being so patient; the comment section was filled with people saying, "This caregiver is more patient than my own son."

But there was a problem.

Douyin's live streaming revenue was too low.

Users of Douyu and Huya had already developed a habit of paying; it was normal for a top-tier streamer to receive tens or even hundreds of thousands of yuan in gifts in one night.

A mid-tier streamer could also receive thousands or tens of thousands of yuan in tips for a birthday.

But on Douyin, even in live rooms with over ten thousand viewers, gift revenue was often only a few hundred yuan, sometimes even just a few dozen.

Occasionally.

A live room with revenue over a thousand or ten thousand would pop up, but the proportion was almost negligible.

It wasn't that no one was watching.

It was that the viewers weren't spending money.

Douyin's total daily live streaming revenue sometimes couldn't even match that of a single streamer on Douyu or Huya.

When Zhao Lei presented this matter to Qin Mo, his expression was several degrees more anxious than usual.

"Boss, our live streaming data is a bit awkward right now."

"There are many viewers and many streamers; the number of daily live rooms is close to Douyu and Huya, but the revenue isn't even a fraction of theirs."

"You were right, we don't need to poach streamers—Douyin has grown its own. But can these streamers survive?"

He flipped a page of data.

"In the past few days, hundreds of creators who used to stream quite frequently have stopped."

"They get hundreds or thousands of viewers per stream, and the bullet comments are lively, but the gift revenue averages only a few dozen yuan per session."

"Remember that brother who carries bricks at a construction site? The one who was on the hot search before? He posted a video the day before yesterday saying he's stopping. His monthly gift revenue was less than two hundred yuan—not even as much as he earns from working overtime carrying bricks for one night."

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, holding a cup of soy milk, and didn't speak.

Zhao Lei continued.

"The outside world is also starting to talk us down now."

"Several internet bloggers have published articles saying that 'live streaming for everyone' is a false proposition."

"They say Douyin users have a strong desire to consume when swiping through Short Videos; they'll place orders when they see ads and like things they find fun."

"But watching live streams is different from buying things. Live streaming is driven by impulsive consumption, while Short Videos are driven by precise recommendations."

"Douyin's algorithm can keep people swiping endlessly, but it can't make them spend money in a live room."

"What's their conclusion?"

Qin Mo asked.

"The conclusion is that even if Douyin's live streaming data exceeds Douyu and Huya, it can never surpass them in live streaming revenue."

"Because the user genes of the two platforms are different."

Qin Mo put down the soy milk.

"They're half right."

Zhao Lei looked up.

"Douyin users are indeed different from Douyu and Huya users, but being different doesn't mean they can't be cultivated."

"Think about it. Douyin users place orders when they see ads in Short Videos and buy clothes they like when swiping through the feed. Why don't they spend money in the live room? It's not because they don't want to, but because there's no scenario to trigger impulsive consumption."

Qin Mo paused.

A key turning point from his past life, when Douyin's live streaming truly began to explode, flashed through his mind.

Back then...

Douyin's live streaming was just like this at the start—many viewers, few gift-givers, and many streamers quit after a month.

Then Douyin launched a feature: PK.

This was what completely ignited Douyin's live streaming; records of over a million or even ten million in a single session became commonplace.

In this world, let alone PK, Douyu and Huya didn't even have a feature for two streamers to broadcast on the same screen. The highest revenue record was only 800,000 yuan, set by a major Douyu streamer.

It was completely incomparable to the record of over twenty million yuan from PK in his previous life.

Thinking of this, Qin Mo tapped a few times on his phone.

Soon.

Zhao Lei looked down and saw that Qin Mo had sent a document to his phone.

"The next step for Douyin Live is to build this feature."

"This is the key for Douyin Live to increase revenue and consumption."

Listening to Qin Mo's voice, Zhao Lei hurriedly opened the document.

And the first sentence in this document was:

"The ultimate form of live streaming—the PK feature!"