The livestreamers think the early ideas, planning and execution were their own. In this view, the MCNs only swooped in with some operational and business support at the last minute. Why should they take the lion’s share of the profits if a livestreamer becomes popular?   

The MCN companies that nurture stars have a meagre yield rate. It is widely acknowledged that without them, there would be no saleable commodity such as a celebrity or a livestreamer. So the tension between the company and the star arises.

Digital twins are an internet concept that refers to the use of technologies such as the Internet of Things, sensors and big data to shape a digital production line in the cloud. Through this digital world mirror, we can better observe and adjust the entire factory operation.

The digital twin of the live streaming family

The other fraction is friends who work in non-internet or media-related industries or have lived in second or third-tier cities. They don’t shop very often on catalogue-based e-commerce platforms and gave surprising answers for buying from livestreams: “Catalogue-style e-commerce seems like a scam, with livestream, you can at least buy from a real ... See more

We often hear how celebrities worked so hard before their big break, but countless people work hard in entertainment or livestreaming, and only a minority achieved success. It’s therefore difficult to know how much of a livestreamer’s or a star’s rise is attributable to the individual’s hard work and how much is attributable to other factors.

To solve this problem, the live-streaming world has explored another business model in recent years: the husband-and-wife team. When the livestreamer becomes famous, they get married to the MCN owner. 

For the MCNs, it’s essentially an early-stage VC investment. If it incubates 100 livestreamers simultaneously and only one becomes a breakout, then MCNs need to capitalise on that success. The MCN needs to recoup the cost of the other 99 livestreamers from the sole success to keep the business afloat. The reality is that no company wants to be in a... See more

However, this isn’t always a successful transformation. It still feels like it contains dimensions of an ‘arranged marriage’ and sometimes that means the couple doesn't live happily ever after.