Abstract:

The case study in this paper is a street band in Wuhan with its full members under live streamers contract. Borrowing from Michael Burawoy's concept of "the game of making out",this study describes the labor control mechanism in the live streaming industry as "the game of popularity". Popularity as a pivotal indicator of labor price decides the compensation of contracted live streamers. However,this seemingly objective popularity indicator can be in fact manipulated. Both live streamers and platform providers can benefit from fake popularity. In the game of popularity manipulation,the interests of capital and labor are joined,and consensus reached. In collaboration,live streamers become conspirators of the capital and thus lose control of their own labor,and distort the relation between labor input and compensation. By participating in manipulation,live streamers help affirm the ideological domination of platform economy. Neoliberal work ethic that emphasizes individual responsibility conceals the power relationship behind unstable employment like live stream. Despite being horrendously exploited,live streamers still think themselves as someone with "independent destiny". Online platform economy has transformed the labor-capital relationship. The earning distribution system,in combination with other social factors,often plays a vital role in labor control. Therefore,understanding the system and its influence on labor process and ideology is the right way to start for any exploration of concepts such as "industry regime" or "sector regime".

Key words: earning system, live streamer, labor process, the game of popularity, platform economy