Tip Me!: Tipping is Changing Social Interactions on Live Streams in China

Live streaming is a proliferating social media generating special social interactions on the platforms especially in China. For example, tipping in live streaming, in which viewers buy virtual gifts to reward the streamers. This paper explores people's tipping behaviors and how it impacts interactions between viewers and streamers. We analyzed 12 videos of live streams by labeling the viewer-streamer interactions, and found that viewers were motivated by the reciprocal acts of streamers. Furthermore, we interviewed 5 streamers to understand their motivations behind the viewer-streamer interactions. Our future study would investigate tipping motivations from the viewers' perspective.