The topic is to discuss the evolution and current underdeveloped state of live streaming, particularly commercial live streaming. in the U.S
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasongoldberg/2023/02/10/is-live-streamingcommerce-living-up-to-its-hype-in-the-us/?sh=75ed8de77a5a
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ijcs.12960
https://www.wsj.com/tech/will-livestreaming-be-tiktoks-amazon-killerafa9a0e6
Patterns of Communication in
Live Streaming
A comparison of China and the United States
SHUQIAN. ZHOU
MEIMEI. WANG
Master of Communication Thesis
Report nr. 2017:088
University of Gothenburg
Department of Applied Information Technology
Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2017
Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
Acknowledgements
First of all, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to our supervisor, Prof. Jens
Allwood, for his weekly meetings during this half year and the constructive suggestions
to our thesis. We learned a lot from him, not only his profound knowledge in
communication, but also his rigorous academic attitude. We appreciate all of his efforts
in our thesis.
We would also like to thank our teachers of Master in Communication. They helped us
build our knowledge systems in communication from the very beginning and keep
enriching the systems within the two years. They also encouraged us to cooperate with
each other and present ourselves a lot. We are grateful for their help in our study.
Our sincere thanks also goes to our classmates, for their help and support for us in the
whole two years.
Finally, we must express our gratitude to our parents for providing us with unfailing
support and continuous encouragement throughout our two years of study. This thesis
would not have been possible without them.
Thank you all again.
Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
Abstract
Live streaming as a social medium provides a multi-functional internet platform for its users to have real-time interaction with others through broadcasting live streaming videos by mobile devices and websites. It brings a new mode of communication. There are previous studies related to its basic usage practices, user’s behavior and its applications in specific fields, etc. However, this study is made from a communicative perspective. It aims to describe and analyze the communication patterns in live streaming. The study is a comparative study between China and the United States.
In order to study the communication patterns in live streaming, 106 live streaming videos are observed (the total length of 2251 minutes). Combining qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis, communication patterns in live streaming are analyzed based on relevant communication theories including:
Interactive
Communication
Management, and Multimodal Communication. Cultural differences between China
and America are reflected during analyses of communication patterns in live streaming.
The findings demonstrate that there are common communication patterns in live
streaming in China and the United States. Common communication patterns are mostly
influenced or decided by traits of live streaming, the new social medium. Common
communication patterns in the two countries inference some general communication
patterns in live streaming. But, different communication patterns in live streaming in
China and the United States also exist. Indicating the cultural impact of the countries
on communication patterns in live streaming.
Key words: Live streaming, Communication patterns, China, the United States,
Culture.
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
CONTENT
1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
1.1 What Is Live Streaming and What Are Communication Patterns? ……………… 6
1.2 Why Studying Communication Patterns in Live Streaming in Both China and
America? …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
1.3 Research Question and Purpose …………………………………………………………….. 8
1.4 The Framework of the Thesis ……………………………………………………………….. 8
2. Research Background …………………………………………………………………………………. 10
2.1 Development of Live Streaming ………………………………………………………….. 10
2.1.1 Development of Live Streaming in the United States ……………………………………… 10
2.1.2 Development of Live Streaming in China ………………………………………………………. 12
2.2. Functions and Features of Live Streaming …………………………………………… 13
2.3 Related Studies………………………………………………………………………………….. 16
3. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………………………………………….. 21
3.1 Interactive Communication Management ……………………………………………… 21
3.1.1 Turn Management …………………………………………………………………………………….. 21
3.1.2 Sequence ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 22
3.1.3 Feedback ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 23
3.2 Multimodal Communication ……………………………………………………………….. 24
3.2.1 Dimensions of Production and Perception in Multimodal Communication………… 25
3.2.2 Body Movements ………………………………………………………………………………………. 26
4. Methodology ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 28
4.1 Study Design …………………………………………………………………………………….. 28
4.1.1 Observation and Coding Framework ……………………………………………………………. 28
4.1.2 Types of Live Streaming to Be Observed……………………………………………………….. 30
4.2 Data Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………………. 31
4.3 Ethical Consideration …………………………………………………………………………. 32
5. Results and Analyses…………………………………………………………………………………… 33
5.1 Overview of the Observation Data ………………………………………………………. 33
5.1.1 Demographics of Broadcasters……………………………………………………………………. 33
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
5.1.2 Place Broadcasting ……………………………………………………………………………………. 34
5.1.3 Number of Viewers ……………………………………………………………………………………. 35
5.1.4 Interactivity in China and the USA ……………………………………………………………….. 37
5.2 Interactive Communication Management ……………………………………………… 38
5.2.1 Turn Management …………………………………………………………………………………….. 39
5.2.2 Feedback ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 41
5.2.3 Sequence ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 49
5.3 Multimodal Communication in Live Streaming …………………………………….. 50
5.3.1 Specific Multimodal Communication in Live Streaming ………………………………….. 50
5.3.2 Body Movements in Live Streaming …………………………………………………………….. 52
5.3.3 Flexibility of Multimodal Communication in Live Streaming ……………………………. 58
5.3.4 Multimodality in Different Contents of Live Streaming …………………………………… 59
6. Discussion …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 61
6.1 Delayed Answers from Broadcasters ……………………………………………………. 61
6.2 Questions Chosen by Broadcasters ………………………………………………………. 63
6.4 Lack of Understanding ……………………………………………………………………….. 65
6.5 Embarrassment Hiding……………………………………………………………………….. 66
7. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 68
7.1 Patterns of Communication in Live Streaming ………………………………………. 68
7.2 Differences between Chinese and American Live Streaming …………………… 69
7.3 Limitations and Future Studies ……………………………………………………………. 71
References …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 72
Appendices ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 77
Appendix 1 Observation Schema………………………………………………………………. 77
Appendix 2 Cluster Membership in USA …………………………………………………… 79
Appendix 3 Cluster Membership in China …………………………………………………. 81
Appendix 4 Division of Work …………………………………………………………………… 83
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
1. Introduction
1.1 What Is Live Streaming and What Are Communication Patterns?
In previous studies, the new social medium of live streaming is not given a complete
and accurate definition. Powell (2015) says that live streaming essentially allows you
to capture and stream, or watch, live video on your mobile device. Hamilton et al. (2014)
claim that live streaming enables public broadcast of live audio and video streams
alongside a shared chat channel. Pires et al. (2015) mentioned that live video streaming
systems are services that allow anybody to broadcast a video stream over the Internet.
Juhlin et al. (2010) state that live streaming makes it possible to capture live video on a
mobile phone and broadcast it in real time to a web page. Hamilton et al. (2016) claim
that live streaming has come to refer to live, streaming, video as well as a set of
communication media that enable viewers to interact with each other and the streamer.
From these descriptions, there are three factors that need to be considered when defining
live streaming, live videos and audios, through mobile devices or internet, interacting
or sharing with others. Therefore, based on the definition of Tang et al. (2016), live
streaming enables immediate live broadcasting of video and audio from a smartphone,
to whomever wants to tune in. We define live streaming as: a social medium that
provides a multi-function internet platform for its users to have the real-time interaction
with others through broadcasting live streaming videos by mobile devices and websites.
Communication patterns refer to specific features of communication that are typical of
a certain community or activity, such as typical sequence of events, feedback, turn
taking, or spatial arrangements, topics, nonverbal behavior etc. Therefore, the number
of such aspects and traits is large and what is at stake is, therefore, to focus on aspects
and traits which have turned out to be interesting in a given community or activity
(Allwood, 1999). According to Allwood (1999), the concept of “patterns of
communication” is fairly general and does not imply very much more than repeated
traits of, or aspects of the communication of the members of a certain social or cultural
group. He has focused on cultural reasons or influences for communication features
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
when studying communication patterns. Other studies have analyzed communication
patterns from the perspective of management and had claimed communication patterns
are structures in which communication flows in an organization (Mishra, 2017). This
study also focused on the communication links in work teams according to
organizational structures. It is clear that different perspectives focus on different aspects
when talking about communication patterns.
This study analyzed communication patterns in live streaming in both China and
America, it focuses on features of communication and basic structure of communication
patterns in live streaming. Meanwhile, cultural factors are also considered in the
analysis, particularly when they are the main reasons for differences between Chinese
and American live streaming communication.
1.2 Why Studying Communication Patterns in Live Streaming in Both China and
America?
Live streaming not only brings new opportunities for the development of social media,
more significantly, it creates new communication modes for social media users. People
are not satisfied to post personal status on Facebook or Twitter anymore, they broadcast
their lives, e.g. concerts they are enjoying, activities they are participating in, travels
they are experiencing, etc. Through live streaming, they share lives and interact with
whomever wants to tune in directly and in real time. Moreover, communication is the
basis of live streaming. Broadcasters can communicate with viewers through videos,
audios or graphics, while the audience can only use text-based comments or tap hearts
up to communicate with broadcasters. This interactivity is important in live streaming.
As above, this new mode of communication has great potential as data for research.
However, through our analyses of previous works, they paid more attention on, for
instance, live streaming usage practices; broadcasters’ behaviors; audience psychology,
etc., but not on patterns of communication. Thus, we study live streaming from a
communicative perspective. This study aims to describe and analyze communication
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
patterns in live streaming.
In general, interactivity in live streaming, and the communication mode brought by this
new medium, as well as the analyses of previous studies provide us great motivation to
study patterns of communication in live streaming.
In addition, the huge development potential of live streaming attracts a lot of attention
in both the USA and China. From 2015, in the USA, 4 live streaming platforms emerged
one after another. They belonged to Twitter, Facebook, and Google, which are giants of
American social networking or internet companies in America. In China, according to
Statistical Report on Internet Development in China (2017), there are more than 200
platforms till 2017. And by the end of December 2016, online broadcast users reached
344 million, accounting for 47.1% of the total Internet users. The very rapid
development of live streaming in China and America probably make them the most
advanced countries when studying live streaming.
1.3 Research Question and Purpose
This study tries to answers the question: What are communication patterns in live
streaming in China and the United States?
According to this research questions, purposes of this paper include i) describe and
analyze basic features of communication in live streaming, ii) construct the basic
structure of communication in live streaming, iii) demonstrate similarities and
differences between live streaming communication and face-to-face communication in
relevant analyses, (iv) compare specific traits of communication in live streaming in
China and America from a cultural perspective. This thesis aims to show a clear and
complete picture of communication patterns in live streaming.
1.4 The Framework of the Thesis
This thesis consists of seven sections. The first section, introduction, mainly introduces
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
research question and purposes of the thesis. The second section, research background,
includes developments of live streaming in the United States and China, basic functions
and features of live streaming, as well as prior studies in this field. The third section
shows the theoretical framework of used in the thesis. After that the method used in this
study will be introduced. Then, in the results and analyses section, results from the
empirical data are described, analyzed and compared according to the theoretical
framework. The next section discusses special aspects focused on during observations.
The final section concludes the whole thesis, displaying the main findings in our study.
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
2. Research Background
In this chapter, we introduce live streaming and describe its development, main
functions and features, as well previous related studies. The purpose is giving a clear,
general understanding of this new social medium.
2.1 Development of Live Streaming
The emergence of live streaming as a popular medium in recent years provides a new
platform for socio-technical interaction in the world (Tang et al., 2017). The popularity
of live streaming platforms, Periscope and Twitch, Facebook etc. , have attracted a lot
of users, media attention, and capital injection. However, Rome was not built in a day,
live streaming has its course of development.
2.1.1 Development of Live Streaming in the United States
In the United States, the earlier live streaming platforms can be traced back to Ustream
and Justin.tv. Both of these two platforms were built in 2007. These two social
platforms were seen as the founders of live streaming. At the time, their service worked
off webcams hooked to computers for the first time (McDermott, 2015). They allowed
users to broadcast, and watch, live video streams online.
Ustream (acquired by IBM) was famous for its real-time broadcast of political events,
while Justin.tv made the huge success on its gaming channel, which became a separate
website called Twitch.tv in 2011. Till 2014 (Twitch was acquired by Amazon with $970
million), Twitch has become one of the largest live streaming platform in the world and
it held the leading position in gaming live streaming market. According to Hamilton et
al. (2014), Twitch has over 34 million unique monthly viewers and tens of thousands
of streamers.
The success of Twitch is a turning point for the development of live streaming. Huge
capital investment by big companies, IBM and Amzon, not only opened new market
for live streaming, but also attracted more attention from the public. In 2013, the
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
implementation of 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) mobile networks, a high-speed
protocol that transmits data 10 times faster than 3G, made it much easier to send and
receive video from cellphones (McDermott, 2015). 4G service broke the technological
limitations for live streaming. Therefore, with large capital injection, 4G technology
and the maturity of social platform (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), live streaming ushered in
the golden age of its development.
In February, 2015, San Francisco entrepreneur Ben Rubin announced the launch of his
live streaming’ video application, Meerkat (Edelman, 2016). This application allows
users to shoot video footage on their smartphones and simultaneously make that footage
appear in real time on the internet, and allows watchers to comment live.
Just 2 weeks later, Twitter cut off Meerkat’s (shut down in October, 2016) integration
with its feed and announced its similar online application, Periscope (McDermott,
2015). Periscope allow users to follow broadcasters and comment on or “heart” the
videos. Unlike Meerkat, Periscope broadcasts persist on the app for 24 hours after a
filming (McDermott, 2015). Meerkat and Periscope instantly became rivals and have
been developing features to set themselves apart from each other.
In August 2015, Facebook introduced its app Facebook Live for only celebrities with
the verified Pages. Then on April 6th, 2016, Zuckerberg announced they were
launching Facebook Live for all users. Anyone with a phone now has the power to
broadcast to anyone in the world when they using Facebook. Besides personal users,
there are many news media, such as BBC, starting to broadcast live news by using
Facebook Live. After that, on August 26th, 2015, YouTube launched its first live
streaming channel, YouTube Gaming—a video game oriented platform. After that, they
opened more live streaming channels such as sports, technology, animal etc.
From the above, through the development of representative live streaming platforms in
the United States, it is clear to see that, in the year of 2015, there was the boom of live
streaming after the success of Twitch. This boom is inseparable from progress of
technology, market investment, the participation of social platforms. The continuous
emergence and growth of new platforms showed the flourishing development of live
streaming.
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
2.1.2 Development of Live Streaming in China
In China, based on the information we collected from the official websites of live
streaming platforms and national Statistical Report on Internet Development (2017),
the development of live streaming can be divided into three phases.
Before 2013, 9158, YY Live (changed name to Huya Live in January, 2014) etc. were
the main platforms at the time. Early live streaming platforms mainly focused on live
show. They provided internet platforms for individual broadcasters to show personal
talent (like sing, dance etc.) or chat with viewers through broadcasting on live streaming
platforms. Broadcasters could get salaries from platforms. Early live streaming
platforms built this underlying business model of live streaming in China.
From 2014 to 2015, gaming live streaming had a huge development in China because
of the emergence of two big live streaming platforms, Douyu and Panda.tv.
In January, 2014, Douyu and Zhanqi were launched at same month. Both of them
focused on gaming video. However, Douyu defeated Zhanqi after launched and became
the leader of gaming live streaming market in China. Douyu’s official website showed
that it has more than 70% market of gaming live streaming in China. In 2016, its
popularity and profitability also won $100 million investment from Tencent (one of
Chinese largest Internet companies).
After that, in October, 2015, Panda.tv was launched by Sicong Wang, son of the richest
man in China. Panda.tv also mainly focus on gaming video. It developed very quickly
with the support of abundant funding. Till now, it has become the biggest rival to Douyu
in gaming live streaming market.
Both Douyu and Panda.tv increase the competitiveness of gaming live streaming in
Chinese live streaming market. Moreover, their success also brought the prospect of a
better development of live streaming in China.
After 2016, Inke and Yizhibo showed new development direction of live streaming in
China. Inke was launched in May of 2015, as a platform of live streaming, not like
Douyu or Panda.tv, which focus on gaming video, Inke included so many different
contents, such as live show, sports, music, travel etc. It is quite popular as the platform
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
of live streaming among young people. Yizhibo was launched in March, 2016 by Sina
(one of Chinese largest Internet companies). It can be used with Weibo (microblog).
Yizhibo developed very fast and got much investments from Sina. It is similar to Inke,
users can broadcast many different things in their life, no matter their home dinner or
football games they watched.
The popularity of Inke and Yizhibo shows that live streaming in China is changing from
specialization to popularization. More and more ordinary people use live streaming to
broadcast their daily life. Live streaming does not only focus on live shows or gaming
videos anymore. According to Statistical Report on Internet Development in China
(2017), there are more than 200 live streaming platforms in China till 2017. Most of the
platforms are trying to expand the content of live streaming, especially live streaming
about their daily life and live streaming programs in order to attract more types of users.
To contrast with live streaming in the United States, Chinese live streaming has its
unique business model. On most of American platforms (except Twitch), the
broadcasters do not have incomes from live streaming, the audience watch for free.
However, in China, broadcasters on most platforms have incomes. Their incomes are
depended on the number of the audience and the virtual gifts they get from live
streaming. The audience buy virtual gifts by real money on the platforms. After
broadcasting, platforms and broadcasters distribute money in certain proportion. In this
way, live streaming shows strong profitability in China.
2.2. Functions and Features of Live Streaming
Live streaming provides a multi-function Internet broadcast platform for broadcasters
to have real-time interaction with others through immediate live broadcasting of video
and audio from a computer or mobile smartphone. Live streaming combines highfidelity graphics and video with low-fidelity text-based communication channels to
create a unique social medium (Hamilton et al. 2014).
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
The typical live streaming experience consists of a broadcaster broadcasting a video
stream accompanied by a dedicated chat channel (Hamilton et al. 2016). Through live
streaming’s user interface, both broadcasters and audience can see graphics and videos
from broadcasters, as well as the comments from all audiences. However, broadcasters
cannot use text-based functions to communicate with the audience, in contrast, the
audience can only use text-based functions to give comments or feedback to
broadcasters.
The essential functions of live streaming are allowing users to broadcast or watch real
time live video on relevant platforms. Streaming video in real time means people all
around the world can watch whenever/whatever you are broadcasting through relevant
platforms (Powell, 2015). Through this function, live streaming provides a new way for
its users to share experiences as they happen with no editing or uploading. Real time
broadcasting as one of the significant factors of live streaming appeals to the human
desire to live out new experiences vicariously through someone else, whether the
streams are by a stay-at-home dad cooking dinner or a celebrity taking viewers through
a red carpet event, users can broadcast themselves (Brouwer, 2015). Sharing one’s own
experiences or participating in some things vicariously through others’ experiences
show the most unique and significant value of live streaming.
Some functions and features of live streaming can be described by introducing two
representative live streaming platforms, Periscope (from the United States) and Yizhibo
(from China). As two professional and mature live streaming platforms, they have some
similar functions.
After users choosing to create new accounts or login by their Twitter/Weibo accounts,
they can shoot or watch live streaming videos on the platforms. Both Periscope and
Yizhibo allow users to follow broadcasters. When seeing the live streaming videos,
viewers can comment on or “heart” the videos. Figure 1 and 2 respectively show two
screenshots of viewing a live stream in both Periscope and Yizhibo apps at the time of
the observation of this study (April, 2017).
Periscope show the number of viewers in lower right corner as part of the live stream
for all to see (Tang et al, 2016). While Yizhibo only show who are watching this video
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
at the same on the top of the image. Yizhibo shows broadcasters’ information at the
upper right corner, however, Periscope does not shows broadcasters’ information.
Periscope broadcasts persist on the app for 24 hours after a filming, while Yizhibo can
save the videos more than 24 hours. Both of Periscope and Yizhibo users can set their
app to notify them if those whom they follow are broadcasting. In addition, both
applications eat cellphone power and bandwidth, so it is recommended that broadcasts
be made over a WiFi connection.
Figure. 1 Viewing a live stream in Periscope
Figure. 2 Viewing a live stream in Yizhibo
From the above, we see that the main functions of live streaming are allowing users to
broadcast or watch real time live video. These functions enable remote viewers to
engage and participate in shared live experiences (Hamilton et al. 2016). Users can also
follow other broadcasters, set notifications, give text-based comments and tap hearts
when watching live streaming videos. During live streaming, broadcasters and viewers
communicate with each other by different modalities. And their interactions are always
real-time and simultaneous.
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
2.3 Related Studies
The rapid development of live streaming has drawn the attention of some scholars. A
number of studies on live streaming have been conducted in different academic fields.
McDermott (2015) quoted above and Cui (2016) provided the general introduction of
live streaming respectively in the United States and China.
McDermott (2015) introduced important nodes in the development living streaming in
the United States: from YouTube, Ustream, to Meerkat, Periscope, and Facebook live.
She focused on analyzing the history of development of Meerkat, Periscope, and
Facebook live. She also compared advantages and shortcomings of Meerkat and
Periscope by analyzing features of their interfaces. Cui (2016) analyzed the categories
of living streaming in China. She summarized four live streaming categories: live
streaming focusing on publishers’ performance, live streaming focusing on audience
reaction, live streaming focusing on the content, and live streaming focusing on
constructing specific scene. She also claimed that PUGC (professional user-generated
content) will replace UGC (User-Generated Content) and PGC (Professionallygenerated Content) and becoming the main trend in the future live streaming in China.
Tang et al. (2016), Siekkinen et al. (2016), Lim et al.(2012), Juhlin et al. (2010), Weisz
et al. (2007) studied the usage practices/patterns of live streaming or mobile live video
service.
Tang et al. (2016) made a comparative study about live streaming by comparing
Meerkat and Periscope apps for live streaming mobile devices. They described the
contents, settings, and other characteristics of live streaming. They found that most of
streamers were motivated to broadcast in order to develop their personal brands.
Moreover, they studied a range of streamers’ responses to their viewers’ comments and
found that the highest percentage of streamers who actively or sometimes responded
occurred in chats, conversely, streaming a professional or amateur event had lower
percentages of responsive streamers.
Siekkinen et al. (2016) explored the anatomy of a mobile live streaming service by
doing the case study of Periscope. They studied live streaming service to understand its
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Patterns of communication in live streaming——A comparison of China and the United States
usage patterns and technical characteristics of the service (e.g. delay and bandwidth)
and also performed the adaptation strategies of using Periscope. Lim et al. (2012)
studied usage practice by constructing a social media-enhanced real-time streaming
video service prototype and conducted a field experiment with actual social media us