Livestreamers promote local farm products in Miaomiaohu village of Pingluo county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. [Photo by Chen Zebing/For China Daily]
Data show that in 2023, the scale of China's live e-commerce market reached 4.9 trillion yuan ($677.11billion), with over 10 million people employed in the livestreaming industry. It is understandable that many college students wishing to make some fast buck should eye livestreaming as the means to do it.
College students often share classroom and dormitory space with others. This "not fully autonomous" environment inevitably leads to conflicts between their studies and part-time livestreaming — their roommates and classmates do not want their life and times to be broadcast in real-time.
It thus becomes imperative for universities to define no-livestreaming zones, such as dormitories and classrooms, to protect privacy. Relevant platforms should pay attention to some irregularities in livestreaming by college students. Platforms need to optimize algorithms, and enhance manual review mechanisms to identify any violations of privacy.
The college students should also realize that, as statistics show, 95.2 percent of streamers who rely on livestreaming as their main source of income earn less than 5,000 yuan per month.
Should college students become too obsessed with livestreaming at the expense of their studies and skill development prematurely narrowing their future possibilities, it would be a significant loss.
