老外來中國靠什麼賺錢？你絕對猜不到

“What do you do for a living?”
你的工作是什麼？

“I’m a full-time live streamer in China.”
我在中國做全職主播。

Probably not the answer you would expect from a blonde-haired blue-eyed American woman like me.
這可能不是一個金髮碧眼的美國女孩預期給出的答案，但是這是我。

But that's right, for a yearlong period from spring 2016 to spring 2017 I was a professional live streamer streaming on several Chinese apps including Momo, Yizhibo, Meipai, and Huajiao. I had a total following of over 400,000.
2016年春到2017年春，我在陌陌、一直播、美拍和花椒等幾個中國軟件中做專業直播，粉絲40萬。

I first began live streaming on the popular video sharing app Meipai with the intention purely of growing an audience. Then an agency that worked with Momo, a dating app that has now become famous for its live streaming, recruited me to stream on Momo.
最開始我在廣受歡迎的共享軟件美拍上做直播，就想漲漲粉。後來約會軟件陌陌的工作人員邀我加入陌陌直播，陌陌現在也是直播界熾手可熱的產品。

With the help of the agency, my following grew rapidly and within a couple of months, I had nearly 300,000 fans on the Momo platform. I was making a full-time income from my live streaming, usually 20,000-30,000 RMB ($3,200-4,800) per month, the majority of which came from virtual gifts from my followers. This didn't happen by chance; I took live streaming seriously and treated it like a job, streaming at consistent times, one to two times a day, for a minimum of 2-4 hours a day.
有了工作人員的幫助，我的粉絲漲得飛快，沒幾個月就在陌陌上有了30萬粉。直播收入是我的全部生活來源，每個月能賺兩萬到三萬，大部分來自粉絲送的虛擬禮物。成果都不是靠幸運得來的，我把直播當做工作，非常認真，每天兩場，兩到四小時，從未中斷。

Yet, despite my success, I quickly realized Momo wasn't a good choice for me long term. Like many of the live streaming apps in China, the only way for streamers to earn money is through gifting.
雖然已經小有成就，但是我很快意識到陌陌不適合長期發展。在中國的直播軟件中，主播只能通過禮物獲得報酬。

The longer I streamed, the more I disliked the gifting model and felt it would not be a sustainable source of income. I decided to transition to a new platform and focus more on becoming an influencer that live streams as opposed to a pure live streamer, which, by the way, are two very different things.
直播的時間一長，我也越來越不喜歡收禮模式，收入並不穩定。所以我跳到了新的平臺，成爲一個有影響力的主播，而不只是單純地直播。這可是完全不同的兩件事。

In general, we can break it down into three types: entertainment, educational and e-commerce.
總得來說，直播分爲三類：娛樂類、教學類和電子商務類。

1. Entertainment
娛樂類
Entertainment live streaming is the most common type where viewers are watching purely to be entertained. It consists of gaming live streams (an industry unto itself), dancing, singing, chatting, comedy, etc. For these streamers, their main source of income is gifts from fans, and they rarely do brand collaborations.
娛樂類直播最爲常見，觀看者爲了娛樂觀看視頻，包括遊戲直播、跳舞、唱歌、聊天、喜劇等等。這些主播的主要收入來源就是粉絲給的禮物，和廣告商之間不存在合作。

2. Educational
教學類
The second type of streaming is educational, essentially meaning a live stream where people are coming to learn something. While this could be an actual live streamed class, it could also be a beauty influencer giving a make-up tutorial, a fitness guru showing people how to lose weight, or a food blogger teaching people a new dish. While these streamers will receive gifts from viewers, the majority of their income is likely to come from brand collaborations, or they might be using live streaming as a way to grow their following.
第二類教學類直播是指教授課程的直播。可以是線上課堂，也可以是美妝課堂、減肥教程、或者吃播爲大家嘗新菜。此類主播除了接收觀看者的禮物，大部分收入來源於廣告合作，或者爲了漲粉。

3. E-commerce
電子商務類
The last type of streaming is e-commerce live streaming, which has become very popular in China over the past year. This type of live streaming is very similar to QVC or the Home Shopping Network. Viewers tune into this type of live streaming because they want to buy things and learn about new products. In China, where e-commerce is rampant with fake items, live streaming provides transparency and trust. The most common platforms for this type of live streaming are Taobao Live, JD Live and also Yizhibo, which can host links to Taobao and Tmall.
最後一種是電子商務直播，去年在中國非常盛行。這類直播很像美國電視購物公司，或者說家庭購物網絡。觀看者想買東西或者瞭解某樣產品時就打開這類直播。中國的電子商務充斥着假貨，直播加大了透明度和信任感。最常見的電子商務直播平臺是淘寶直播和京東直播，還有一直播，它們都會提供打開淘寶和天貓的鏈接。