How much money do South Korean streamers earn? Afreeca TV makes nearly $26M in 'star balloons' exchanged per month
Korean streamers are making an insane amount of US dollars by going live on Afreeca TV, a South Korean live streaming platform. Over the years, many users have claimed that the days of Afreeca TV are over as Youtube races ahead with a new generation of streamers, however, the numbers presented around Afreeca TV streamers tell a different tale.
According to an analytics site, Poong Today which keeps a live update of “Star Balloons” exchanged in the site (viewers gift streamers star balloons which they can cash in real money) shows the monthly income of the streaming site in billions of Korean won (KRW). Estimated more than $26,726,772 (30 billion KRW) worth of star balloons – Afreeca TV donations – get sent to streamers every month through the platform. It is important to note that these numbers are updated every minute, and vary through different times of the day, week and month.
One star balloon costs $10 (110 KRW) and within just the first 5 days of November, 71,490,085 star balloons have been given to streamers, which means the site accumulated $7149,0008.
The number of star balloons exchanged in a month is also dependent on how many hours of the stream is usually conducted per person. Some streamers have continued streaming for more than 20 hours in a day to accumulate more star balloons. Poong Today shows each day approximately 458,525 star balloons (the average number varies due to the different number of viewers throughout the day) are given to streamers.
Reality TV stars or rookie trainees of various Korean and Asian idol groups have also joined this streaming platform to leverage their popularity. Idol trainee, Kim Hyun Ah, joined Afreeca TV as a BJ (Broadcast Jockey) in July 2020 after getting fame from Mnet competition variety show 'Produce 48'.
If you take a quick look at their top ten charts at any time, it will also reveal that the platform is heavily dominated by women streamers who get hundreds of thousands of star balloons each month through the site. Over time, the kind of content and highly paid streamers have also come under scrutiny and a lot of controversies.
Sexually explicit content, live stripping shows and allegations of prostitution are also very common as a streamer can ask for more star balloons to get more intimate and create a fan room to continue the stream. When streamers or viewers get thrown out for violating site rules, they can come back the next day to repeat the same process all over again.
In October, a rookie streamer with the username 'blckswanette' started her first live broadcast but she was banned later for over-sexualized content. Another streamer Shin Na Rin found her channel suspended for three days after appearing in a live stream wearing short jeans, which were later identified as underwear.
Often, the streamers also make certain promises to the highest donors as this user pointed, “look at 타미미. She gets like 10k USD daily on afreecatv. She demands viewers to donate money and she also give her kakao id to top 20 donators.”
look at 타미미. She gets like 10k usd daily on afreecatv. She demands viewers to donate money and she also give her kakao id to top 20 donators.
— icinadanisupportpas (@LEBRONJAMES_HWA) November 6, 2020
Last year, a mukbang artist Yu Hye-ji received $137,000 (120 million won) in a single stream which made headlines. Later, a fan who introduced himself as the manager of her fan club came forward to reveal that it was him behind the donations, stating he wanted to help her. “I have never met Yu or even exchanged phone numbers with her,” he said. “I came across her videos on Afreeca TV last week. I got much help from watching her cheerful and bright character in the videos.”