Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Guy Live-Streams His Sleep, Earns Rs 2.87 Lakh

Due to the rapid and complicated spread of Coronavirus, many Chinese citizens have decided to lock themselves up at home. So it's no surprise that in the past few weeks, most of them have been constantly seeking entertainment from some of the country’s most popular live-streaming platforms.

But, watching funny videos or vlogs has become too boring that people turn to watch a young man live-streaming his sleep in 5 hours on Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese version.

The guy in the livestream is Yuansan, a freelance actor. He started live-stream on Douyin on February 9, becoming a newbie in this streaming industry. Yuansan didn’t have the ambition to become a hot streamer or something. He just wanted to record his sleep and sees if he snores during his sleep or not. When he woke up the next morning, he realized that his 5-hour video had attracted hundreds of viewers.

He decided to keep on live-streaming his sleep for the next few days. His Douyin channel has now become viral with 18.5 viewers and 1 million subscribers. Moreover, he also receives donation through virtual gifts with a total value of up to $11,000. However, according to Douyin’s policies, a content creator can exchange these virtual gifts into cash but with a lower value. Thanks to that, Yuansan earned around $4,000 or Rs 2.87 lakh for live-streaming his sleep.

But he also shared that he didn’t want to live-stream these sleep videos anymore. He also thanked his subscribers for their support. At the moment, Yuansan has stopped his livestream and hasn’t announced when he’s coming back.

The popularity of Yuansan, as well as other content creators, only comes when many Chinese citizens are forced to stay at home during the Coronavirus outbreak. Many public places for entertainment like coffee shops, cinemas or gyms have been closed.

Similar industries in the country like online games, online education have also welcomed many new users. Some even started a new model called cloud-clubbing where people can party with DJs through platforms like Bilibili, Douyin, and Kuaishou.

According to recent research of Quest Mobile, the number of active users on Douyin and Kuaishou has reached 42 million. Moreover, on average, a person spends 105 minutes to watch videos on these two platforms, a 34% increase from 2019 Lunar New Year.

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