韩国女主播直播吃饼干3小时引10万粉丝.

　　Imagine there’s a place where someone can go and sit down for an intimate chat with a gorgeous South Korean beauty; a place where even a simple cheap gift will cause her to blush with praise for the gift-giver.

　　假设有这么一个地方，你可以毫无顾忌地观赏一位高颜值的韩国美女——盯着她看而不用担心对方反感，还能随意攀谈，甚至花点小钱送一点礼物，她就会因为这些打赏而称呼你 “老公”或者“男朋友”。

　　Does this sound appealing to you?

　　听起来是不是相当有诱惑力?

　　Maybe yes, maybe no. However, some people certainly find this type of place appealing, as online "live streaming chat rooms" are becoming all the rage on the Internet in China.

　　可能是，也可能不是。不过，随着网络“直播间”在中国风行一时，的确有一些人认为这个地方非常有吸引力。

　　These virtual rooms are heaven for many men who live their lives online and a rising industry worth some 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) to businessman, but it is also a cruel battlield where appearance, dance performances and even skill at video games can decide which hostess can rise to the top of the heap.

　　对网友来说，直播间是“宅男的天堂”;对生意人来说，它是一块价值超过100亿元(15亿美元)的蛋糕;而对平台上的女主播而言，这更像是一个残酷的战场，容貌、舞姿、声音，甚至游戏水平，都能成为优胜劣汰的筹码。

　　The online "civil war" in the Chinese mainland has been a rough one as multiple live streaming platforms have been popping up one after another. Even more recently, competition has become even fiercer as rivals from South Korea have now joined the battlield.

　　中国大陆的战场上已经硝烟弥漫，而今，随着多样化的直播平台不断涌入这个市场，甚至是来自韩国的女主播开始抢占风头，战争愈演愈烈。

　　With these new arrivals, some Chinese hosts literally cried as they saw their viewer numbers drop dramatically.

　　强大对手的冲击下，一些中国女主播因为粉丝锐减，急得在直播间里哭了。

　　An expanding industry

　　一个不断扩张的产业

　　More than 1.5 million users had flooded into South Korean hostess Heo Yun-mi’s live streaming chat room. The chat window on screen was basically a blur due to the sheer amount of messages being posted by viewers. Such popularity was new to Heo.

　　150万人涌进韩国女主播许允美的直播间。滚动的弹幕几乎霸占了整块屏幕，留言刷新速度达到了视觉所能分辨的极限。这阵仗，她还是头一次见到。

　　The attractive young hostess had just finished a sexy dance, and her chest was moving dramatically as she breathed heavily.

　　这位身材姣好的女主播，刚在直播间跳完一段性感热舞，胸膛随着呼吸不停地起伏。

　　Calls for "one more dance!" were constantly popping up on the screen.

　　不断有人刷屏：“再跳一个!”

　　She told Meiri Renwu, a WeChat media outlet, that she was both surprised and gratul the first time she saw such a response. Now, she has slowly gotten used to the attention and is able to remain calm during streams.

　　她告诉微信公众号每日人物(ID：Meiri Renwu)，起初看到这么多观众时，惊讶得一个劲儿地跟人道谢。如今，她已经慢慢的习惯了这大量的关注，并淡定了许多。

　　Bore bringing her channel to China, she was a hit hostess on South Korean live streaming platforms. At her peak back then she could have maybe 12,000 concurrent viewers, yet in China she gets almost 125 times as many viewers.

　　来中国前，许允美是韩国直播平台的当红女主播。她在本土人气最高时，观众数量是12000人。而到了中国，这个数字是过去的125倍。

　　The market in China is indeed vast. According to data from consultation company iResearch, there were nearly 200 live streaming platforms for a total of 200 million users in 2015. That’s almost one seventh of the country’s population.

　　中国市场实在是太大了。艾媒咨询的报告显示，2015年中国在线直播平台数量接近200家，网络直播平台用户数量已经达到两亿——几乎相当于中国总人口的七分之一。

　　It’s estimated that the market could grow to 15 billion yuan this year.

　　2016年，中国直播市场规模预计将达到150亿元

　　Even Wang Sicong, the son of Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, spent thousands of yuan on one South Korean host.

　　即便是中国首富王健林的儿子王思聪，也为一位韩国女主播一掷千金。

　　When host Yanghanna was dancing on Panda TV, one user sent several "fotiaoqiang," a virtual gift worth 1,000 yuan.

　　韩国女主播Yanghanna，在熊猫TV表演跳舞时，有人打赏了多个“佛跳墙”。(每个“佛跳墙”，在熊猫TV售价1000元人民币)

　　Then Wang Sicong joined the "room" and got into a "gift war" with that user. At one point the user sent a gift worth 140,000 yuan, after which Wang sent one worth 400,000 yuan, a new record for the hostess.

　　随后，王思聪也进“房间”打赏，紧接着对方开始挑衅王思聪，双方开始了“礼物大战”。高潮发生在最后一刻：那位土豪观众一口气刷了约14万元的礼物，王思聪则怒刷了40多万元——创下了这位女主播单日收礼最高记录。

　　Yanghanna was so surprised she cried.

　　幸福来得太突然，Yanghanna在直播中喜极而泣。

　　Even though this was most likely as promotional stunt - Wang is the founder of Panda TV - the pressure on domestic hosts is real. On July 6, the highest-ranking host in China was a South Korean hostess who had 15,000 concurrent viewers at one point, while the top Chinese host ranked only at 11 with 9,700 viewers.

　　尽管这个故事有炒作嫌疑——王思聪就是熊猫TV的老板——但中国女主播真切感受到对手的威胁。7月6日这天，排在龙珠直播榜首的是一位韩国女主播，共有15万观众观看，而排名11的中国女主播，观众数量仅有9700个。

　　Dancing is a trump card for many South Korean hostesses, but sometimes audiences still pile in even when they don’t dance.

　　舞蹈，几乎是所有韩国女主播的杀手锏。更多时候，即便不跳舞，韩国女主播的直播间依然聚集着大批观众。

　　At 8 pm on July 5, Lee Soo-bin started her show. During the next three hours, she mainly just sat in a chair and ate cookies as viewers numbering in the tens of thousands watched on.

　　7月5日晚上8点，韩国女主播李秀彬开始直播。在直播的3个小时里，她几乎都坐在椅子上，做的最多的事情是吃饼干。而大约有10万观众在看她吃饼干。

　　Lee’s charm is mainly physical. She first rose to fame as pictures of her circulated online.

　　李的魅力来自她前凸后翘的身材。她最初是因为发布在网上的一些照片而声名大振。

　　"Normally I get tens of thousands of viewers, but there can be many more during holidays such as the Spring Festival," Lee told Meiri Renwu.

　　“平时都会有10多万观众进来，遇到春节这样的节假日人会更多。”李秀彬对每日人物说。

　　Lee is experienced in attracting male viewers, who make up a majority of the audiences on live streaming platforms in the mainland.

　　她深谙男性观众的“口味”。在大陆的直播平台中，一大半用户都是男性。

　　To better seize viewers’ attention, Lee films her shows using an HD camera that cost her more than 5,000 yuan, and spends more than an hour getting her makeup ready. She also changes costumes regularly during live streams, going from a nurse to a teacher and so on.

　　为了牢牢抓住观众的眼球，李秀彬使用超过5000元人民币的高清摄像头直播，每次化妆时间都在1个小时以上，服装包括护士装、教师装等——每次直播都不重样。

　　She said she has found that there is almost no difference between audiences in South Korea and China, so her four years as a hostess in her own country makes her an expert.

　　她说，她发现其实中国观众和韩国观众没有太大区别。在韩国直播了4年，如今又转战中国的李秀彬可谓“身经百战”。

　　Compared with Chinese hostesses, those from South Korea are often skilled performers. Heo said she feels almost no pressure from Chinese hosts.

　　相比中国女主播，韩国女主播简直是“十八般武艺样样精通”。 许允美表示，面对中国女主播，她几乎没有感到竞争的压力。

　　"I can pole dance and play the guitar and the piano," she explained.

　　她说，“我会跳钢管舞，还会弹吉他、弹钢琴。”

　　She said that although some Chinese hosts are pretty, and some can dance, they lack variety.

　　她直言中国对手的软肋，确实有漂亮的，也有会跳舞的，但她们都太单一了。

　　Heo and other South Korean hostesses have a reason to be confident. Many of them were trained as performers in their home country. Heo was once a member of a girl band that produced an EP.

　　许允美和其他的韩国女主播并非盲目自信。不少韩国女主播都在本土接受过艺人培训。许允美还曾是韩国女子组合的成员，还出过单曲。

　　This is one of the reasons South Korea is famous for being a "star-production factory." Many aspiring performers join entertainment agencies at a very young age and are known as trainees. Only a few go on to become actors or actresses, some become singers, while most trainees are weeded out.

　　这正是韩国被称为“造星工厂”的原因之一。很多人从很小的年龄就开始接受艺术训练，被称为练习生。最后，只有很少一部分人能成为演员，弱一点的当歌手，而超过一半的练习生会被淘汰。

　　But even those trainees who have been weeded out can end up becoming big hits in the live streaming industry in China since they can easily beat out Chinese hosts who have no training.

　　但即便是这些被淘汰的练习生，在中国做直播，面对大多数没有“专业”背景的中国女主播，很多也能所向披靡。

　　Another advantage is that South Korean hostesses are not coming here alone, but with their agencies. Whereas Chinese hostesses are usually just working on their own.

　　另一个优势是，这些韩国女主播绝非单枪匹马来到中国，而是和经纪公司一起。中国的女主播们往往都是单打独斗。

　　These South Korean entertainment companies have the resources to carry out market research to better understand customer prerences, train their hosts and provide support in the form of costumes, interpreters or schooling so they may learn Chinese.

　　这些韩国的经纪公司有一定的资源进行市场调研，研究中国观众的喜好，给她们做培训，并提供服装支持和专职翻译或者中文教学方便她们学习中文。

　　To keep her edge, Heo said she spends three hours practicing pole dancing and the piano everyday, and watches Chinese TV shows to learn Chinese even when showering.

　　许允美说，为了保持优势，她每天要花3个小时学习钢管舞和钢琴，就连洗澡的时候，都在看中国的连续剧，学习中文。

　　It seems that in almost every aspect except the ability to speak the local language, these hostesses can easily beat their Chinese counterparts.

　　她们相信，除了语言，没有什么能够阻碍她们彻底打败中国女主播。