Understanding How Digital Gifting Influences Social Interaction On Live Streams

Digital gifting in live streaming, in which viewers buy digital gifts to reward the streamers, was worth over $200 million in 2018 in China and its growth has been accelerating. This paper explores what motivates people to tip and how it impacts interactions between viewers and streamers. Through a survey, we identified the main categories of viewers' tipping motivations. We found that viewers were motivated by the reciprocal acts of streamers, who would engage in various types of social interactions with tippers during the live streams. The styles of interactions and contents of live stream based on the tipping are differently influenced by the motivations of viewers and streamers. For example, viewers often tip large to attract attentions from the crowd or promote preferred live-streaming content. These findings provide more knowledge on the social interaction in live streaming platforms.