A host whose cartoon filter disappeared mid-stream to reveal a middle-aged face has gained hundreds of thousands of new followers from what she describes as a savvy marketing stunt.
Left: An image livestreamer Her Majesty Qiao Biluo had posted on her Douyu account; right: Her actual face, as revealed in last week’s “unmasking” during a live broadcast. @江苏新闻 on Weibo
A celebrity livestreamer who landed in hot water last week after she was “unmasked” to be older and more average-looking than she had led her fans to believe has added a new twist to the drama by claiming that the apparent snafu was a savvy marketing move all along.
During a broadcast Monday on livestreaming platform Douyu, the host, whose online handle translates to “Her Majesty Qiao Biluo,” said the plan was hatched by a branding agency whose services she had engaged for 280,000 yuan ($41,000). At some point during the last week — media reports give conflicting accounts of when — Her Majesty shocked her fans when the anime-style cartoon face often uses to obscure her own suddenly disappeared during a livestreaming session with another female host — revealing not the image of a young, attractive woman Her Majesty had posted on her channel, but that of a much older woman.
Many fans said after the incident that they felt swindled, with one of Her Majesty’s most generous supporters, who had reportedly tipped her over 100,000 yuan, even deleting his account. Nevertheless, her followers have ballooned from 50,000 to nearly 1 million.
China has a rapidly growing livestreaming industry, with 21% of all full-time hosts earning at least 10,000 yuan per month from fan donations. Continue to read the full article here.
– This article originally appeared on Sixth Tone.
