Just when you thought we already have all sorts of influencers—from fashion, food, tech, fitness, travel, etc.—have you ever heard of sleep influencers?
Making money while you sleep is probably everyone’s dream (or goal), given that its tough enough to earn a living while you are awake. But for some “sleep streamers”, they are making money just by staying in bed.
One of them is Alex Shannon (@followthenap). Since 2018, Shannon has been traveling the world to sleep in some of the most luxurious locations.
And then there are the live sleep streamers who earn thousands of dollars by recording themselves trying to sleep and encouraging their followers to disrupt it—via donation notifications.
YouTuber Tyler Krause (pillowtalkTK) recorded himself talking and walking in his sleep while his girlfriend reacted. Streamer Ice Poseidon, on the other hand, made $5,000 in eight hours for trying to sleep in 2017.
But perhaps the biggest earner is Twitch streamer “Asian Andy” who made $16,000 in just one night by doing a “sleep stream.”
Instead of just watching him sleep, he goaded his viewers into making donations so that disruptive noise will be made. He set up text-to-speech recognition so whenever a fan donates money and sends a message, that message will be read aloud. His viewers used their messages to get Alexa to play loud music, imitate a dog barking, make his alarm clock go off and even alerted him that someone was at his window.
Not bad for someone who used to drive Uber for $16 an hour.
There’s no stopping the growth in popularity of video content over the last few years and with the arrival of 5G and faster Internet, content creators are more than happy to switch to video to gain even more followers—and make more money.
According to statistics, the video streaming market will grow to $223.98 billion by 2028. Research also found that live videos hold users’ attention 10-20 times longer than pre-recorded, on-demand content with millennials being the largest group of consumers with 63 percent of people ages 18-34 watching live-streaming content regularly.
When in-person venues closed due to the global pandemic, streaming became the only viable option for various professionals—including artists, musicians, dancers, and chefs, among many others—to distribute their content. Live streaming platform 17LIVE noted a nearly 300-percent increase in signed streamers from 2019-2020. There’s also a growing community of streamers who are making a living live-streaming their niche hobbies and everyday lives. What is often called IRL (Internet slang for “in real life”) streaming increased 63.1 percent between Q4 of 2020 and Q1 of 2021, and a growing number of athletes, painters, bands, chefs, medical practitioners, cosplay lovers and social-media influencers, among others, are becoming IRL streamers.
Live-streaming has become so popular because it brings content creators together with their fans. The relationship is further cultivated by streamers in their call-outs of fans and subscribers who interact, often in exchange of items that cost real money, and the feeling of having your favourite streamer giving you a shoutout among the thousands of fans brings a certain feeling of satisfaction—which viewers are more than happy to pay for.
We recently got to chat with Alex Lien, 17LIVE CEO for Taiwan and Southeast Asia as the streaming app expands its presence in the Philippines and Southeast Asia to provide local content creators a new venue for their streams.
The company has become the biggest platform for live entertainment in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and several other countries with more than 46,000 contracted artist globally. With the tagline “Life Happens Live”, 17LIVE wants to create irreplaceable moments with live streaming technology where users can create a world to connect with anyone to empower expressions and connections.
What sets 17LIVE apart from all existing live streaming apps and services in the Philippines?
Unlike other platforms, 17LIVE has a lot of cooperation with local entertainment industries all around the world. With our global resources, we can build up a complete ecosystem for our streamers to thrive within our platform and expand their career path with us. We also have internally produced content capability, so that we can provide more chances and opportunities for our streamers to further cultivate their capabilities and get more exposure on our platform.
Do you think 17LIVE will have the same success in the Philippines as it has in countries like Japan and Taiwan?
The Philippines has a special cultural environment and social community. People enjoy a lot from interactions with each other. Besides, we also did lots of studies and surveys from both users and competitors’ perspectives. Filipino users have a very high recognition for live streaming service. With the success and learning around the world, we are quite confident in entering the Philippines market and hoping to bring more exciting content to this market.
Does the app have a tutorial to help new users learn how to take full advantage of everything 17LIVE has to offer?
We provide a comprehensive tutorial to new streamers when they join 17LIVE, including platform regulations, community rules and secrets of fan management. Besides, we have collaborated with many agencies to lead our contracted streamer to walk through problems and difficult situations, and assure them receiving all the help we provide. For users who watch streaming, our app provides a complete tutorial process about basic interaction. Moreover, users can also learn from advanced users and this pattern gradually becomes a unique community circle, which is an unbreakable social experience to all users.
What advice would you give to new users who will use the app as a source of revenue to make their content stand out and attract more audiences?
The key lies in the user journey total package. The most important thing is how streamers leverage the resources our platform provides and create their user experience to attract the right target audience. Streamers can design their home page and profile photo to express his/her own characteristics and uniqueness.
During live streaming, streamer interaction, streaming room atmosphere, and the topic you chose will influence how you position your own content. On the other hand, the biggest advantage of live streaming is the prompt reactions. You can adjust yourself in a short time. To sum up, know your target audience; position your own content; create your own user journey; be able to quickly adjust yourself.
What requirements do users of the 17LIVE app need to meet before their content can be monetized?
We welcome all talented Filipino content creators joining us if they are looking for a place where they can be easily noticed. Our recommendation algorithms are simple and easy to understand. Creators can gain hot spots easily by interacting with users. Based on our observation, the way that Filipinos use live streams is unique. For example, casual chats and sharing on random topics are highly appreciated by most users, music and talk show contents are also common and popular in this region. The key factor is the interactions between the streamers and fans. The income will also increase along with fan retention, as well as personal awareness in the social media.
With a 17LIVE global portfolio, we wish to bring the Filipino special culture and talent that can be seen all around the world.