14 DAY TRIAL // A Chinese man forced to stay home due to the coronavirus had the brilliant idea to live-stream himself sleeping, and the netizens liked this so much they ended up donating more than $10,500 in virtual gifts.
The first livestream was posted on February 9 when the man just wanted to see if he snores, but the number of viewers was so big he eventually decided to do it again the next evening.
Stats published on his channel reveal that last night no less than 18.5 million people watched him sleep.
According to an interview he offered to Chinese site 36kr, the audience donated no less than 74,000 yuan, which is over $10,500, in virtual gifts, but given he can convert the currency to real money, he made more than $4,000 just by live-streaming himself sleeping.
Content creator
The man, who previously created short videos for the same platform, says he no longer wants to record his sleep, but return to this original hobby.
“I’ve worked hard for half a year to shoot the videos. I am said that none of these many fans watched me before,” he told the site according to an adapted Google Translate version of the interview. “I thing this has a bad effect and it’s not a very good phenomenon. It affects the value of so many people,” he continued.
Millions of Chinese are still stuck at home due to the risk of coronavirus infections, and while some can work remotely, others try to address the boredom with all kinds of ideas that sometime go viral.
This man, however, says becoming an Internet sensation isn’t as fun as it sounds, revealing that he received all kinds of comments, including some proposals from strangers to come live with him.
The next livestream starts later tonight if you want to watch the man sleeping.