In recent years, new forms of online live streaming have risen rapidly, playing an active role in promoting the development of the industry and enriching cultural supply. But at the same time, there are also some chaos that have a negative impact on society. In particular, some of the so-called emotional live broadcast tipping activities have made many people and even teenagers indulge in it until they are bankrupt. In recent years, relevant state departments have also continued to deal with relevant chaos, but problems such as "lack of main responsibility", "uneven anchors" and "irregular reward behavior" still exist.
Huang Ping (pseudonym), a 23-year-old villager in Pingyu County, Henan Province, showed reporters a thick pile of bank transfer records, just one of the bank card records, which he had given out in the past year or so, totaling more than 150.<> million yuan.
Huang Ping is currently unemployed and is not rich from the perspective of family conditions. Where did such a huge amount of money come from? Huang Ping's father died in an accident two years ago while working at the construction site, and the construction site paid a one-time death compensation of 145.3 million yuan. Later, Huang Ping's mother also died of illness. After that, Huang Ping and his mentally ill brother were addicted to online live rewards, and by the time the family found out in March this year, there were only 4 cents left in the account.
At present, the Xiaohuang brothers have filed a lawsuit in the local court. It is not an isolated case to make people bankrupt through tips, and some people even affect the survival of enterprises because of tips. In the lobby of a clothing mall in Beijing, a few hundred square meters of space is empty. A few years ago, the company's cashier embezzled more than 2000 million yuan of the company's public funds to participate in live broadcast tips. At most, more than <>,<> tips a day.
The cashier was eventually sentenced to 13 years in prison, and the stolen money has not been recovered to this day, which has dealt a devastating blow to the company.
One painful experience after another makes people wonder, what factors are causing this? In fact, live broadcast tipping itself is not naturally so harmful, it is an online profit model developed in recent years, users in the process of watching online live broadcasts, by spending money to brush gifts to pay or appreciate the work of the host.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law: Because there are different types of tips, there is a kind of paid viewing, for example, I pay, tip a certain amount, the anchor will answer you a question, or tell you a story, sing a song, dance a dance. A gift that falls under this condition, or is similar to the purchase of a service.
When you see high-quality live content, it's okay for users to express their gratitude with tips. So, what exactly did the Xiaohuang brothers watch during the live broadcast that made them so deeply immersed in it that they were able to tip out their father's pension without a penny? In the records he kept, it can be seen that a female anchor named Yaoyao, Xiaohuang spent 15,<> yuan for her in one day.
Huang Ping: At first, I gave fewer tips, slowly added a friend, and then gave more tips, she said to meet, that's it.
Reporter: How much can I meet?
Huang Ping: I don't know, anyway, she dragged it like this.
Xiaohuang's experience is not unique. Some anchors attract tips not by high-quality content and services, but by vulgar and pornographic content to attract netizens, and use the expectation of dating to make people addicted step by step. Between the online platform and the anchor, there is usually a company as the anchor brokerage agency to manage and build the anchor, an industry insider revealed to the reporter the routine in the live broadcast room.
Reporter: Is it obvious that the oversized amount is deliberately induced or confused?
The person in charge of a anchor brokerage company: About 100% or 95%, because first, he doesn't induce you, why should I consume? After consuming, maybe I earn 100,000 a month and consume 10,000 for you, why are you still tempting me? In a month, I have swiped all my income to you, and then I have my deposit to you again, there must be corresponding conditions.
In addition to the scam of dating as a temptation, PK is also a common way to attract users to tip. The so-called PK is that several anchors with similar styles play at an agreed time to see who has more gifts. It seems to be a small game, but it has become a "battlefield" for many netizens to give crazy tips.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law: When big anchors play PK, ordinary people can't stand it. Why? First, there will be the so-called war song in quotation marks, and everyone is very impulsive when the war song sounds; Second, he will brainwash everyone before the meeting, we are family, it is cohesion, there is less money on less money, if there is no less money, you can just like it, and everyone will gather to hit each other.
Anchors and platforms create a brainwashing, irrational atmosphere that makes people "on top", and many people themselves are already difficult to restrain themselves. When PK, there are often some "big brothers" or "bosses" in some live broadcast rooms, and their bold way of rewarding has attracted many netizens to follow suit and compete to be a "big brother".
Reporter: Usually they will say "big brother" or something, have you ever been a one?
Huang Ping: Yes.
Netizens like Xiaohuang, who are not smooth in their daily life and financially rich, can easily get psychological satisfaction in this process. However, among the netizens who compete to be the "big brother on the list", there are often some female anchors' companies that brush gifts for their anchors to create a competitive atmosphere to lure you into the set.
The person in charge of a anchor brokerage company: Many anchors actually have some bosses who brush gifts, all of which are from their guild (brokerage company), you have to compare with him, compare with him, and find that although you win, but in the end, the more the total is more wrong, brushing more and more.
In a live broadcast room, a netizen was encouraged by the anchor to brush gifts non-stop for nearly an hour. Under all kinds of routines, the crazy live broadcast room is like a vampire machine to squeeze young people's time and money, bringing great harm to society.
In February 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China and seven other ministries and commissions jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Standardized Management of Online Livestreaming, pointing out that problems such as the lack of entity responsibility, the uneven quality of anchors, and irregular tipping behaviors on online livestreaming tipping platforms are frequent and frequent, requiring platforms to effectively regulate the order of livestreaming and resolutely curb undesirable tendencies and industry chaos. In May 2, the Central Civilization Office and other four ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Opinions on Regulating Online Live Streaming Tips and Strengthening the Protection of Minors", proposing to "prohibit minors from participating in live streaming tips". However, there are still problems with the responsibility of some platform entities or the behavior of anchors.
In the late night live broadcast room, some female anchors were scantily dressed, ambiguous in language, and some directly promised to chat privately as many gifts as they wanted, and could send mysterious benefits.
A fifteen-year-old boy in Weihui City, Henan Province, received such "benefits" on his mobile phone. Not long ago, when he was secretly watching the live broadcast, the female anchor chatted with him and added him to WeChat, sent him some half-nude photos, and promised to "complete the task and broadcast it to you". Xiao Zhang, who was not deeply involved in the world, was addicted to it, and gradually swiped out the more than 6,<> yuan in his mother's bank card in the live broadcast room.
Xiao Zhang's mother: It makes me so angry that I can't even say it. There are tens of thousands of yuan left, or I had some work injury in Zhejiang in the previous three years, and people compensated me for hundreds of thousands of yuan, and he finished brushing the anchor in about ten days.
Xiao Zhang's mother was disabled in the line of duty, his father was recently paralyzed in bed by a stroke, and the family fell into trouble after all the savings in the family were rewarded by Xiao Zhang.
With the help of the police, Xiao Zhang's mother found a platform to ask for the money back. According to the requirements of relevant departments, online platforms should have banned minors from participating in live broadcast tips, but it is not difficult for some minors to watch live broadcasts online to participate in tips.
Reporter: You used your mother's number?
Xiao Zhang: Minor mode, if you don't turn it on, it is normal mode.
Reporter: When did you bind this card?
Xiao Zhang: When swiping gifts.
Reporter: Did you brush your mother's face?
Xiao Zhang: Hmm.
It seems that in order to truly prevent minors from participating in live broadcast rewards, in addition to improving parents' awareness and ability to supervise, in the final analysis, it is necessary to start from the chaos of online live broadcasting. Legally speaking, experts believe that according to the requirements of China's Civil Code, civil acts such as tipping should also comply with the constraints of public order and good customs, and platforms should bear corresponding responsibilities.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law: The platform is more of an intermediary service, which provides network-related services, and if there is the right to share the relevant share, there must be an obligation to cooperate with each other. For example, this money is not in line with morality and public interests, then the platform should have reserves and be liable for compensation.
According to the requirements of industry management, China's "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Standardized Management of Online Livestreaming" in 2021 proposed that online livestreaming platforms should establish and improve the classification and grading standardized management system for live streaming accounts, and reasonably set limits on the total amount of rewards received in a single session and the popularity of live broadcasts for online anchor accounts of different categories and levels, reasonably set upper limits on individual virtual consumer goods and single tip amounts, and set a cooling-off period and delayed arrival period for tips when necessary. After more than two years, some platforms have not implemented these requirements.
Reporter: Has the platform reminded you that the frequency of your transfer is relatively high or the total amount is excessive?
Huang Ping: No.
Through inquiries, the reporter found that a small number of online platforms will provide such an option when users enter the live broadcast room, users can limit the amount of tips themselves, and after setting, when the quota is enough, they will receive corresponding reminders. However, this is not the same thing as the establishment of the total amount of rewards received in a single session, the reasonable setting of the upper limit of the single tip amount, and the setting of a cooling-off period for tips when necessary.
Reporter: The state stipulates that when necessary, a cooling-off period and a delayed arrival period for tips are set up, have you heard of this regulation?
The person in charge of a anchor brokerage company: No, this affects customer consumption and affects their flow. There are some public companies that affect their stock and affect shareholder shares, so they try to be 100% not set up these things.
Generally speaking, the platform must first share 50% of the tipping fee, and the rest will be shared by the anchor and the brokerage institution. It can be seen from the background agreement between a platform and the anchor brokerage company that the gradient amount and task of the total turnover of the month are used as assessments. Brokerage institutions with a monthly turnover of more than 500 million yuan can get at least an additional 8% reward. Under this system, brokerage companies and anchors are encouraged to find ways to obtain higher amounts of tips.
Saying a thousand things and ten thousand is fundamentally driven by interests, which makes it difficult to implement the guiding opinions and the chaos in the industry is repeatedly prohibited. According to the latest industry report, China's online performance (live broadcast and short video) industry has more than 1 million online live broadcast accounts, more than 5 billion content creator accounts, and nearly 10 billion yuan of market revenue. How to better regulate such a huge market and ensure its benign development is a complex and urgent problem to solve. There is no place outside the law on the Internet, and I hope that through effective governance, the live broadcast room will achieve a clean atmosphere as soon as possible. (CCTV News Client)