728 Billion KRW in Q1 This Year... Estimated Record High Sales
Streamer Influx Effect Due to Twitch Korea Withdrawal
AfreecaTV, the platform that maintains the number one share in domestic live streaming, is estimated to have achieved the highest ever Star Balloon sales in the first quarter of this year.
According to the industry on the 20th, Hana Securities projected AfreecaTV's donation economy gift (Star Balloon) sales in the first quarter to be 72.8 billion KRW. This represents a 25.6% increase compared to the same period last year, marking a record high.
In response, Junho Lee, a researcher at Hana Securities, evaluated the market changes over two months after Twitch withdrew its Korean operations in February due to conflicts with telecom companies over internet network usage fees as a "clear victory for AfreecaTV." He analyzed that this was the result of competitive major streamers such as ‘Uwackgud’, ‘Isekai Idol’, and ‘Chimchakman’ moving from Twitch to AfreecaTV.
In fact, the newly incoming streamers are leading the rise in AfreecaTV’s Star Balloon sales. According to PungToday, which provides related statistics for AfreecaTV, the top 10 virtual streamers in March were all streamers who transferred from Twitch, and their combined Star Balloons amounted to about 5.5 million (550 million KRW).
Recently debuted as an AfreecaTV BJ, Seo Jisoo, a former member of the girl group Lovelyz [Image source=Captured from AfreecaTV video]
Popular BJ CommanderZico reportedly earned about 5 billion KRW in profit in June last year alone. BJ Haielin (Elin), a former member of the girl group Crayon Pop, received Star Balloons worth 800 million KRW from a male fan over a period of one year and two months. Recently, Seo Jisoo, a former member of the girl group Lovelyz who debuted as an AfreecaTV BJ, gained attention for earning 3 million KRW in just four hours.
Researcher Lee predicted, “Since streamers have settled on the platform and no major movements are expected for the time being, this trend will continue.”
Market research firm Statista forecasted that the global live streaming market will grow by 8.3% annually until 2027, reaching 137.7 billion USD (approximately 190 trillion KRW).
Meanwhile, Naver will officially launch the live streaming platform ‘Chijijik’ next month, entering into a full-scale competition with AfreecaTV in the domestic live streaming market. Chijijik recently added a short-form video service to quickly secure viewers with highly engaging content.
In response, AfreecaTV will counter with a global strategy by launching live streaming services in Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand in the second quarter of this year. The strategy is to overwhelmingly increase the number of viewers through overseas business to outpace Chijijik’s pursuit.
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