Expert: Internet live broadcasts are too chaotic and must be cured in order to prosper for a long time

At present, there are nearly 200 online live broadcast platforms in China, with 200 million users and a market size of about 9 billion yuan. 2016 has become a veritable "first year of online live broadcast." At the same time, online live broadcasts are accompanied by vulgarity, pornography, violence and other chaos. Why did online live broadcasts become popular overnight? Why is the supervision of the emerging Internet industry always "slow"? What impact will this method of information dissemination have on social mentality?

Original title: Internet live broadcast is too chaotic and must be cured.

Recently, the Ministry of Culture and other departments have launched a heavy attack and investigated and punished a number of illegal and illegal online live broadcast platforms such as Douyu and Liujianfang. At present, there are nearly 200 online live broadcast platforms in China, with 200 million users and a market size of about 9 billion yuan. 2016 has become a veritable "first year of online live broadcast." At the same time, online live broadcasts are accompanied by vulgarity, pornography, violence and other chaos.

Why did online live broadcasts become popular overnight? Why is the supervision of the emerging Internet industry always "slow"? What impact will this method of information dissemination have on social mentality? The reporter interviewed relevant experts.

Is it a new economic force or a source of chaos

? Every night after 9 o'clock, Xi Xiaoru (pseudonym at the interviewer's request), who works in a foreign company in Beijing, will lie in bed, turn on her mobile phone, log in to a Mobile Live Video Broadcasting platform called "Heixiu", and chat with viewers. Watching the audience constantly reward her (using cash to buy movie tickets, diamond rings, high heels, sports cars and other props) and light up (an interactive way), she said,"It can increase income and relax, which is much better than going to work."

Xi Xiaoru's experience is a microcosm of the rapid development of the online live broadcast industry in recent years.

Coincidentally, at 9 p.m. on July 11, Internet celebrity "papi Sauce" started personal live broadcasts simultaneously on 8 online live broadcast platforms. In less than an hour, the number of online viewers on the entire platform exceeded 20 million, and it received a reward of 900,000 yuan from netizens. The appeal of Internet celebrities and the huge vitality of the online live broadcast market can be seen.

In recent years, with the popularization of 4G and the reduction of tariffs, users 'habits and needs to watch videos under mobile Internet conditions are being cultivated. With one mobile phone and one account, everyone can turn into a "live car". An era of national live broadcasting is coming.

It is precisely because of this market potential that Internet giants such as Tencent and Alibaba have taken advantage of the trend, and investment institutions including IDG, Qiming Venture Capital, and Sequoia Capital have also poured a lot of "real money" into the live broadcast field. Data shows that from January to May this year, the financing amount obtained in the video live broadcast field exceeded 1 billion yuan. Various live broadcast formats such as shows, performing arts, sports, e-sports, education, and stars have been launched one after another.

Wang Sixin, director of the Center for Internet Law and Intellectual Property Research at Communication University of China, told reporters that in recent years, the development of science and technology has greatly liberated people, and at the same time, a large number of idle people have emerged. As long as many people get together, there are potential consumers, and attracting their attention can generate economic benefits. In addition, the cross-regional nature of webcasting also expands the aggregation of people with similar interests. It is this "long tail effect" of the Internet that has led to the emergence of the idle economy.

At the same time, with the outbreak of webcasting format, related negative information and controversy are also increasing. On the "Hey Show" platform that was investigated, female anchors who violated regulations publicly used undressing to lure viewers to reward in the live broadcast room, and some even used live sex to attract attention. On the "Hearthstone" platform, the anchor broadcast a live speeding car, resulting in a serious car accident; on the "Tiger Tooth" platform, a group fight occurred during the live broadcast. In this regard, these platforms have not carried out strong supervision, or for profit reasons, they have acquiesced and condone anchors to perform illegal and illegal performances, making the chaos of online live broadcasts more and more serious.

On July 12, the Ministry of Culture announced the results of the investigation and punishment of a number of online performance platforms. 26 online performance platforms, including Douyu, were investigated and 16881 illegal online performers were punished. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture also issued the "Notice of the Ministry of Culture on Strengthening the Management of Online Performances" to regulate the dissemination of online performances by online cultural business units. The "Notice" clarifies for the first time that performers are directly responsible, and proposes that in the future, random spot checks will be implemented on online live broadcasts and a "blacklist" system will be implemented. Performers included in the list will be banned nationwide.

Chen Shaofeng, deputy dean of the Institute of Cultural Industry at Peking University, said in an interview with reporters,"The tightening of government policies is to establish some basic restrictive standards from the perspective of social interests, similar to a 'negative list'. Moreover, these vulgar things on online live broadcast platforms are easy to impress and endanger the growing online live broadcast industry. Therefore, from the perspective of maintaining the healthy development of emerging Internet industries, regulation is very necessary."

The spiritual ecology cannot be unbalanced due to pan-entertainment

. You can register by entering a string of ID numbers. You can earn income by relying on "cool" clothes and provocative language. Low thresholds and high incomes make some people compete to enter the anchor industry. From the perspective of age structure, among anchors and audiences, the "post-80s" and "post-90s" are important components.

Wang Sixin analyzed that the elegance or vulgarity of content is directly related to the unit of time and labor spent by the producer. Nowadays, many people hope to get the happiness of pan-entertainment from online live broadcasts. As anchors for content producers, many people do not have the time or ability to provide high-quality content. Moreover, because it is a live broadcast, when many people gather in a scene like this in the live broadcast room, their emotions are difficult to control, and relevant moral and legal concepts are easily diluted. Driven by the "square effect" or the law does not blame the public effect, anchors may lower the content threshold in order to meet people's curiosity needs.

"Although this business model is similar to stage performances, it is easy to deviate and is unsustainable." Chen Shaofeng believes that online live broadcasts have turned anchors into live content, and their body language, clothing, and interaction with the audience have become objects of consumption. For viewers, especially some teenagers, their mentality and values may also be alienated.

Neil Bozeman, an American scholar of media culture, once wrote in his book "Entertainment to Death":"If all cultural content silently or even willingly becomes a vassal of entertainment, the result is that we become a A species that entertains until death."

It is worth noting that some online live broadcast platforms are evolving in this direction of pan-entertainment. Some scholars call it "the serious constraint of media business logic on cultural logic." The superficial and even vulgar happiness they provide is a vent of desire., lacking thinking and spiritual participation, their consumerism and pan-entertainment demands are disintegrating some traditional cultural value systems. Audiences who have been influenced by this pan-entertainment culture for a long time may face an imbalance in their spiritual ecology. Therefore, the corresponding social mentality and culture may also vary. This must be vigilant.

Government supervision focuses on management efficiency

. From the perspective of government supervision, in the past, in response to problems arising in the Internet live broadcast industry, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the Ministry of Culture, the Central Cyberspace Administration, local cultural market administrative law enforcement departments, and the network security departments of the Public Security Bureau, etc., have all acted in different forms of supervision. Some people in charge of live broadcast platforms are worried that multiple Internet law enforcement and government agencies will cause harm to the growing online live broadcast industry.

Wang Sixin believes that the Internet supervision model of "Kowloon Water Control" will still exist for a certain period of time. The Internet covers too many issues, including public security, culture, audio and video, Internet information, etc. It is unrealistic to put all of them under one department. The current feasible solution is to focus on improving the management efficiency of various departments. This requires clarifying the rights and responsibilities of each department, and at the same time, it requires departments like the Central Cyberspace Administration to conduct centralized coordination on some issues.

So, in the process of governing the Internet, how can government supervision achieve management innovation?

Wang Sixin suggested that the government should lower its stance, study the theoretical issues behind the Internet, grasp the development trends and laws of the Internet industry, and avoid the phenomenon of "slow-moving" and "patching" supervision. For example, the government needs to carefully study the impact of online live broadcasts on people, the interaction between live broadcasts and viewers, and whether it may trigger mass incidents.

At the same time, the government must also put itself in a correct position. When facing online live broadcasts, we should be a detached neutral party, set reasonable rules, and balance the interests of online live broadcasts platforms and consumers. "Chaos may be a manifestation of the vitality and vitality of the new Internet industry. Government supervision should be based on maintaining this vitality of the Internet and cannot be managed for its own sake." Wang Sixin said.

Eliminating chaos can lead to long-term prosperity.

Since the birth of the Internet industry,"chaos" and "prosperity" have been like two sides of the same coin, coexisting at all stages of industry development. Since the Internet can always give birth to new things, and supervision has a certain lag,"chaos" above the "wind outlet" has almost become a necessity.

However, for online live streaming practitioners, they must also grasp the "wind direction" in the "wind outlet". It is foreseeable that strong supervision by the national cultural department will become the main theme for some time to come, and online live broadcasts require "dancing with shackles."

In Wang Sixin's view, the current strong supervision by the cultural department is a "red line" drawn out for the online live broadcast industry. Online information dissemination channels have their own dissemination rules. In terms of content style, the live broadcast industry will not change much, but violations will be greatly reduced.

From the perspective of the entire industry, the industry ecology is quietly changing. Chen Shaofeng believes that the online live broadcast industry should enter a stage of diversified development, with some loose and some tight. "The loose part is that the business formats are more diverse. After Internet giants began to join, many business formats will adopt live broadcasts in order to emphasize interactivity. The tight side is that the content cannot conflict with the government's 'negative list', which will have a great impact on previous business models." Chen Shaofeng said.

The recent development of the online live broadcast industry confirms Chen Shaofeng's views. After undergoing the baptism of the strongest "regulatory storm", the online live broadcast industry is no longer the world of all kinds of beautiful women. The content structure has begun to develop in a professional and diversified direction, and a number of professional themed live broadcasts such as humorous paragraphs and financial comments have been produced. program. Live broadcast platforms have also begun to change their inherent business models and begin to explore new ways to combine with e-commerce, concerts, etc.

Many operators of online live broadcast platforms have also begun to clearly realize that online self-discipline is also self-protection, and only by eliminating chaos can long-term prosperity. All walks of life are also forming a consensus that only by managing Internet live broadcasts can viewers not be "entertained to death", and the live broadcast industry can return to a healthy development track. This is a good thing for this industry and society.

Editor: yvette