How to Attract More Viewers in Live Streams? A Functional Evaluation of Streamers’ Strategies for Attraction of Viewers

Abstract

Live streaming is becoming popular and has attracted large numbers of online viewers. It becomes a social commerce venue where streamers can gain commercial benefits from building the relationship with viewers. Before building relationship with more viewers, how to attract more viewers is the essential foundation in the live streaming industry. This article explores and evaluates what strategies and techniques streamers use to attract more viewers through data source triangulation and methodological triangulation. In details, data were collected from streamers’ self-reports, viewers’ self-reports and online actual behavior; interviews, focus groups and online observation were applied, based on the characteristics of data. Through multiple triangulation, we identified three strategies and techniques for attracting viewers: (i) to increase streamer-viewer interactions, (ii) to create synergy with other streamers, and (iii) to conduct self-promotion. Findings were indicated by the popular streamers and verified by both focus groups and online observations. Our paper contributes to understanding streamer-viewer interactions in computer mediated communication. Live streaming platforms also benefit from this study in terms of platform design and marketing.