China’s live streaming sector booms, but looming challenges

China’s live streaming sector ushered in a boom in 2016. More than 200 live streaming platforms and apps are actively involved in the budding sector, which CreditSuisse estimated to have topped RMB 25 billion in 2016, attracting 325 million users, or nearly half of the country’s total population, local media is reporting (in Chinese).

Lured by the promise of the profitable market, investors have been bulking up their push into the sector. A flurry of live streaming platforms have secured funding rounds worth billion of RMB in aggregate in 2016 (in Chinese).

According to a 2016 ranking based on the popularity of live streaming platforms (in Chinese), top five performers were Huya (虎牙直播), Panda.tv (熊猫TV), Yingke (映客), YY Live (YY直播), Douyu (斗鱼直播) and Huajiao (花椒直播).

What you get

Full access to all premium content and our full archives

Members'-only newsletters

Preferential access and discounts to all TechNode events

Direct access to the TechNode newsroom