Harnessing the stream: algorithmic imaginary and coping strategies for live-streaming e-commerce entrepreneurs on Douyin

Abstract

When an algorithm is embedded into the platform economy as a digital infrastructure, it affects the visibility of information, the distribution of interests, and the labor process. In the context of live-streaming e-commerce, entrepreneurs interact with algorithms and consumers in real time to obtain more traffic. Compared with platform users, entrepreneurs are more sensitive to changes in the algorithm when facing great uncertainty in live-streaming and have become “algorithm experts”. This paper focuses on the short video platform Douyin and adopts the methods of field research and in-depth interviews. We interviewed 45 live commerce entrepreneurs and explored how entrepreneurs understand and interact with algorithms, particularly how their understanding of algorithms differs from that of users. By examining algorithmic imaginaries and coping practices, the authors hope to further the understanding of the relationships among labor, technology, and economic activity in new social contexts. In our study, we found that unlike platform users, who are often resilient, entrepreneurs have more active attitudes to learn about and interact with algorithms. They use words such as “admission tickets” and “like the wind” to describe algorithms. Unlike content creators, entrepreneurs’ understanding of arithmetic is influenced by the logic of traditional trade business when faced with traffic uncertainty. To seek certainty from a blurry stream, they adapt the methods of farther learning, frequent algorithm tests, more sophisticated work division, and resignation to fate. This study enriches the research perspective in the field of STS from a social-economic perspective and discusses the impact of technology on individual movement in the context of e-commerce. At the same time, this study also explores the technological ideology behind precarious work, which reflects individuals’ expectations of social order.