The Magic of Danmaku: A Social Interaction Perspective of Gift Sending on Live Streaming Platforms

Abstract A novel function of live streaming is that viewers can send paid gifts to broadcasters. In addition, viewers can engage with broadcasters by sending danmaku, a type of comment scrolled across the screen in real time. This paper investigates the role of viewers’ social interaction in paid gifting on live streaming platforms. We argue that viewer-viewer interaction can prompt paid gifting by affecting viewers’ arousal level through stimuli extracted from danmaku. Types of danmaku-related stimuli are presence of others, social competition, and emotional stimuli. Specifically, presence of others is measured by total number of words; social competition by debate level; and emotional stimuli by similarity of danmaku, number of excitement-related words, and number of emoji. Using data from a major live streaming platform in China, empirical results show that except for number of emoji, the other four variables positively affect paid gifting.