A couple of times a week for about 3-5 hours, Sam Triplett sits in his abode in China, opens a live-streaming app called Huajiao and talks about anything and everything, prompted mostly by commenters who are watching. Ricey Chen does the same thing using the same app, but she does it for about 20 hours per week. Triplett makes between $100 and $150 per stream and Chen makes about $7,500 a month.
Live-streaming apps like Huajiao and Inke are very popular in China. But making money live-streaming your daily life to viewers? Why are so many people watching and why are they paying? I wanted to know more, so I spent some time trying to figure out just what is behind the live-streaming phenomenon in China. Find out for yourself in the video above.