Agents promise the undergraduates of 10,000 yuan salary per month but end up offering only several hundred yuan.
Web star agents promise to offer several thousand yuan per month to undergraduate anchors
Shortly before summer vacation, Wang from Capital Normal University noticed a recruitment poster in the campus. The recruitment was for live video anchors and potential web stars. “We’d like to recruit good-looking anchors who are enthusiastic about performing, singing, dancing, and modelling, etc.", said the poster, “students who received professional training are preferred.”
Such posters and leaflets from different agent firms were soon distributed across several campuses in Beijing. The rewards seemed quite attractive. Some agent firms claimed to offer RMB 3,000 to 5,000 per month for 2-3 hours’ live video streaming work per day.
The agents said that many undergraduates took the anchor job with a monthly earning of 2,000 to 10,000 yuan.
Such posters and leaflets from different agent firms were soon distributed across several campuses in Beijing. The rewards seemed quite attractive. Some agent firms claimed to offer RMB 3,000 to 5,000 per month for 2-3 hours’ live video streaming work per day.
Recruit poster in campus
The agents said that many undergraduates took the anchor job with a monthly earning of 2,000 to 10,000 yuan.
The anchors are requested to dress up and chat
Our correspondent got in touch with a manager of one agent firm in Beijing and sent him a candid photo. The manager suggested that she’d better improve her appearance and replace the glasses with contact lenses. The manager invited her to a face to face interview after some chatting. “Do remember to put on your make up and dress well”, he reminded.All conference rooms are filled with applicants when the correspondent came to the company for the interview. So, her interview was taken place in one of the live video streaming rooms.
One live video streaming room in Beijing
To become a web star, you need to work as an anchor first
The web star agents were recruiting good-looking versatile anchors when they claimed to look for potential web stars. “It’s not easy to make the anchors web stars. You don’t need to become web stars to earn money”, said one manager.
The “web stars” would be graded by their appearance, talents and performance, and their payments would differ depending on the grading. The basic salary for the lowest ranking anchors is 1,500 yuan per month plus commission of 40%; for the highest ranking anchors, it is 10,000 yuan per month plus commission of 50%. To get a basic salary, they need to work at least 2 hours a day, and 22 days per month. They also need to secure ten high-quality videos per month.
The “web stars” would be graded by their appearance, talents and performance, and their payments would differ depending on the grading. The basic salary for the lowest ranking anchors is 1,500 yuan per month plus commission of 40%; for the highest ranking anchors, it is 10,000 yuan per month plus commission of 50%. To get a basic salary, they need to work at least 2 hours a day, and 22 days per month. They also need to secure ten high-quality videos per month.
“Sexy figure” is a plus
One manager from a web star agent showed the correspondent a sample popular video. In the video, a scantily-clad young lady was playing guitar. “This is the kind of video we want, we just need to avoid being caught by the platform”, said the manager, “some graduates already earned 30,000 yuan this month in this way.”
One manager from a web star agent showed the correspondent a sample popular video. In the video, a scantily-clad young lady was playing guitar. “This is the kind of video we want, we just need to avoid being caught by the platform”, said the manager, “some graduates already earned 30,000 yuan this month in this way.”
Chatting history with the agent
Some anchors only get 200 to 300 yuan per monthLi Ru from Capital Normal University has worked as a part-time anchor for a few months. Her purchased her own devices and worked in her dormitory. What she needs to do is singing, chatting and dancing. "Although the basic salary is 2,000 yuan per month, I've never achieved the basic work hours. Usually, I can only get 1,000 yuan, and there's only several hundred left to me after the deduction of commission fees", said Li. “And some audiences would speak ill of me, which hurts me a lot”. She once considered quitting. But she eventually goes on because this is a relatively easy way to make money.
Undergraduates should know how to protect themselves when engaging in the anchor job
Undergraduates should protect themselves by reading the contract carefully and refusing any illegal performances when doing live video streaming. Some undergraduates are so obsessed with the idea of becoming web stars that they are prone to be cheated by the agents. However, even becoming a web star does not mean that one can take it as a lifetime job. He or she should make long-term career plans and be more helpful to the society.
Undergraduates should protect themselves by reading the contract carefully and refusing any illegal performances when doing live video streaming. Some undergraduates are so obsessed with the idea of becoming web stars that they are prone to be cheated by the agents. However, even becoming a web star does not mean that one can take it as a lifetime job. He or she should make long-term career plans and be more helpful to the society.