Asian social networks are dominated by influencers for hire
Special agencies employ people to stream to the internet from staged bedrooms
Peek into the guts of dystopian influencer factories
In Asia, they have obviously come up with an almost perfect business model for extracting as much money as possible from social networks such as TikTok, Instagram or YouTube. So-called influencer factories are emerging all over China, but also outside of it, where people go to create content for social networks. However, the whole thing resembles dystopian science fiction at the level of the hit series Black Mirror.
Fake rooms, fake smiles
Imagine a place that looks like a child’s room. It is colorfully painted, you will find a desk and other typical furniture, maybe even a bed, a chest of drawers with clothes and the like. A young girl, the age of your older daughter, is making a video here on TikTok or another similar social platform.
However, this room is not located in the apartment building or at the parents of said girl. It is a room within a huge complex, where there are easily dozens of such rooms. Everything is fake, it’s not a real room, but the “office” of a professional influencer. But she is not her own boss, although she shoots videos for her channel, she is busy in her own way. Unfortunately, the parable of the pimp and his harem of female companions is not so far from the truth.
Social selling factory in Indonesia 🤯
This is UGC industrial mass production. This is a freaking factory.
Selling things online is changing so fast. Everything is changing so fast.
This is unreal pic.twitter.com/8rig77MGuR
— Linus (●ᴗ●) (@LinusEkenstam) August 20, 2023
There are a lot of videos on the Internet that show how content on networks has become a serious business. For example, a video of one such factory, allegedly located in Indonesia, appeared on TikTok. The premises correspond to the description above: young ladies, but also young men, sit behind a table in a 2 x 2 meter room and record videos or live stream.
Custom influencers
But why would anyone find and hire people to become influencers? The reason is cooperation and the possible sale of products online. After all, this is the central theme of the Op-Docs docuseries, which we reported on last December.
It depicts the life of one such “social media worker” who works in a similar influencer factory in China. The girls receive a very small salary (if anything, they usually have money only as gifts from fans), at the same time they are driven to higher, even abnormal work performance by the prospect of possible bonuses. As a result, they have to stream, for example, 16 hours straight, every day.
Don’t overlook
Influencers as slaves: China’s most famous TikToks are created in inhumane conditions
It’s hard to say how in Indonesia, where the mentioned video comes from, but in China, agencies specialize in the recruitment and training of influencers. They write a casting call and then lock the best candidates in the punk rooms to stream on social networks for a few hours. The agencies then offer their services to third parties, who can offer their products to the general public through hired influencers.
The terrifying “reality” of the Asian continent
Well, this practice can also be seen in another video shared by the blogger @LinusEkenstam. There are maybe a hundred influencers in the lobby, all with their own phone and their own ring of light that is used to stream and record YouTube videos. Allegedly, it is a school for Internet creators, or something exactly like the admission process for an influencer agency.
For European internet users, the whole thing may seem dystopian, and exactly as we described, like something from the series Black Mirror. However, this is very likely a completely common practice in Asia, and working as an internet personality for hire is as common for the people there as it is for us to go to the office in the morning and go home in the afternoon.
Author of the article
Jakub Fischer
Journalist, fan of modern technology, summer months and Asian food. I like Lynch movies, Pollock paintings, french house and Arsenal football club. In my spare time, I play PlayStation and go jogging.
2023-09-21 18:15:00
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