As the pandemic has forced so many of us out of in-person social spaces, we’re increasingly looking to technology to fill the gap. This has fueled huge growth in social media trends like live streaming, particularly in China, the first country to be affected by the crisis and the world’s second largest internet user base. Live streaming is one of China’s most lucrative and fastest growing entertainment and e-commerce sectors and its growth in 2020 has been massive. In March, the country’s live streaming market hit a whopping 560 million users – more than the entire US population and more than quadruple the 126 million watching last June – and is estimated to be worth US$16.3 billion in 2020. This has translated to significant growth for companies like Hello Pal International Inc. (CSE:HP) (OTC:HLLPF), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), HUYA Inc. (NYSE:HUYA), Douyu International (NASDAQ:DOYU), and Momo Inc. (NASDAQ:MOMO).
Hello Pal Finds Footing in the Massive Chinese Market
China’s incredible live streaming growth has caught the attention of social media company Hello Pal International Inc. (CSE:HP) (OTC:HLLPF) and the company’s platform has impressed China’s users. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Hello Pal is a mobile technology company that operates a proprietary, user-friendly social networking and communication platform. A key feature of the company’s text, voice chat, and live streaming services is proprietary real-time language translation functionality, which not only allows users to engage with other users all over the world, but also gives Hello Pal the ability to establish its platform in just about any global online market.
Since adding Live, Hello Pal’s proprietary live streaming service, to the company’s platform, live streaming has been a key focus for the company. Live allows users to broadcast themselves seamlessly to Hello Pal’s global audience. Live’s success is in part due to the platform’s reward systems, which allows users to support streamers by securely offering crypto-enabled rewards, which can be turned into real cash.
Hello Pal has made the Chinese market an early focus for the company. The platform’s unique international design and focus has given the company access to the significant Chinese live streaming market before western live streaming giants. From 2018 to March 2020, the number of users of live game streaming and live host shows in China grew by 22 million and almost 44 million, respectively.
Hello Pal has been growing alongside the Chinese live streaming market. Live now has 4.4 million users with 5,000 daily users, and the platform’s user base as a whole topped 5.2 million users in September with more than 10,000 active daily users.
In December, Hello Pal announced two new features for its services. Building on the successful introduction of live streaming, Hello Pal has added an innovative one-on-one video matching service that allows its users to easily meet other users directly through live video chat. The company also added a VIP membership system that lets users subscribe for a host of exclusive perks and functionality, including targeted matching and video matching chat durations, as well as experience enhancements throughout the Hello Pal app, such as access to unlimited translation. Users can subscribe for VIP membership for different prices and durations, ranging from C$3.35 for a week to C$64 for a year.
China’s Unprecedented Streaming Market
Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Twitch live streaming service is the biggest name in the global live streaming space, but unfortunately for the company, the service is currently banned in China, rendering it inaccessible without a VPN to the country’s 560 million users. This means that there is a huge opportunity for live streaming companies like Hello Pal to establish themselves in the market without living in Twitch’s shadow.
One of the main players in Chinese live streaming currently is HUYA Inc. (NYSE:HUYA). The company’s platform offers live streaming for video games and esports events, including official broadcasts for major esports events. The platform also includes channels for other genres including cooking, traditional sports, and more.
DouYu International (NASDAQ:DOYU) is another key streaming service in the country. The company’s DouYu TV streaming platform is the largest in the country with 163.6 million monthly active users as of 2019. In 2019, DouYu had the largest IPO on the NASDAQ ever for a Chinese company.
Momo Inc. (NASDAQ:MOMO) is a Chinese tech company with assets in the web search, instant messaging, and dating app spaces among others. In 2015, the company added live streaming to its portfolio. The service quickly gained traction as an early success for the live streaming industry, becoming a core part of Momo’s business.
Live streaming is heating up around the world as people look for ways to fill social needs remotely amidst the pandemic. Nowhere is this more apparent than in China, where Hello Pal has established a strong foothold.
Click here to learn more about Hello Pal.
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