A disabled village boy eats raw fish and snakes online. A girl uses an electric drill to hold the corncob she is eating and gets her long hair caught in the machine.

Yes, folks, that’s entertainment — Internet style.

It seems there’s nothing that cannot be broadcast live via the Internet: singing, dancing, eating, sleeping, changing clothes, playing e-sports and even speeding down the road.

The weirder, the better.

It’s become so easy for everyone and anyone to become online performers that a whole new industry has sprung to exploit the trend.

China’s more than 200 Internet broadcast platforms drew more than 200 million viewers last year. At the busiest times of the day, more than 3,000 online studios on the biggest platforms are jam-packed with about 4 million online viewers at any one time.

The market value of the industry, which was about 15 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion) last year, is expected to surge to 106 billion yuan by 2020.

City girls, village belles, university students and office clerks put on heavy make-up and fancy dresses after school or work to perform in front of computers equipped with cameras, striving for stardom in the cyberspace. They hope to become the “worshipped” idols of thousands of online fans ready to squander big money to buy virtual gifts for their favorite babes.

These girls, or even boys, are called “online live broadcasters.” They are drawn to the medium by the get-rich-quick stories of people who bear their bodies and souls for public viewing, using no more than a computer equipped with a camera and microphone, or merely a smartphone.

The genre has pushed the boundaries of public decency. In January, a topless woman and a male companion engaged in sex live on yy.com. Last December, another broadcaster on douyutv.com filmed himself live on his smartphone while speeding through the streets. He subsequently crashed into a taxi, seriously injuring the passenger and the cab driver.

Despite the pitfalls, “it is definitely a promising industry,” says Zhong Hua, one of the founders of Kali Cultural Media Co Ltd, which has more than 20 female broadcasters, aged from 18 to 22. They broadcast on China’s various online TV platforms.

Zhong claimed his girls are all “law-abiding and self-disciplined,” playing by the rules and regulations.

Kali, located in northern Shanghai’s Baoshan District, features 14 differently themed studios, each decorated in some way or another as a young girl’s bedroom, with a sofa, flowers and celebrity posters on the wall.

The company also has a training room, where his “girls” take dancing and singing lessons.

Technically speaking, the women could work at home, he says, but they prefer to broadcast in the studios with professional equipment.

“A top sound card can have different modes for chatting and singing,” Zhong says. “Of course, it will have better audio and visual effects.”

A “star broadcaster” with more than 200,000 fans can earn at least 1 million yuan a year, while an ordinary broadcaster’s salary varies according to the number of hours worked and the volume of virtual gifts she receives.

At Zhong’s company, the starting salary for a broadcaster is 8,000 yuan, and each is required to work 50 to 90 hours a month. Girls who do not attract sizable audiences are dumped.

The virtual gifts are a major source of income for broadcasters, the agencies and the online platforms.

A virtual gift can be anything from a rosebud to a car, but it has to be bought in real money.

A girl on panda.tv once won thousands of fans by broadcasting herself sleeping (alone) at night and earned 70,000 yuan from one viewer alone. A teenage boy filmed himself eating dinner and earned 11,000 yuan a night.

Michael Zhang, 33, who comes from a wealthy family, says he spends about 100,000 yuan a month on different woman broadcasters.

He tells Shanghai Daily that he wants to be a “super fan,” which requires sending gifts valued at over 1.6 million yuan and gains him special gratitude from broadcasters and applause from viewers.

A Zhejiang Province businessman surnamed Wang, who refused to reveal his full name, says he spent about 20,000 yuan once on a female broadcaster.

“You need to change your way of thinking,” he says. “If I go to a bar or KTV, I usually spend more. But now I can simply sit at home and get entertained.”

Broadcaster Chu Yan, 23, has been doing online shows for two years since graduation. Going from a “nobody” to a popular online “queen,” Chu has amassed more than 400,000 followers. Like many broadcasters, she now manages her “career” herself.

Chu started her climb to stardom by broadcasting herself playing e-sports. Her pretty face, soft voice and dancing ability gradually attracted an audience dominated by male viewers.

“I like to spread optimism among my fans,” Chu says. “Sometimes I just talk to them about social issues or console when they tell me about troubles in their lives.”

When dealing with nasty viewers, she says she gets rude or just ignores them.

“I’m a serious broadcaster,” Chu says.

“Serious” broadcasters hope to become so popular that they are picked up by venture capital companies seeking to invest in the burgeoning online entertainment industry.

A resulting big contract can stretch to 50 million yuan. One popular e-sport player named Wuwukai on douyutv.com is said to own a Ferrari and a luxury downtown apartment after just two years of online broadcasting.

The rags-to-riches realm is rife for misconduct.

Last week, a woman player named Liu Jiayi, who has 2.45 million fans on douyutv.com, was accused of cheating. She once revealed in a TV show that she earned 10 million yuan a year with her broadcasts for playing games.

She finally admitted last week on her Weibo blog that she “hired some professionals to play games behind stage for her several times.” The game’s official website then announced that it would close down her account for 10 years and forbid Liu from joining in any other games.

What does it take to become an online broadcasting sensation? You need to be pretty, sexy, communicative and talented. It’s a plus if you can sing and dance.

But Kali’s Zhong says appearance is not the only criteria.

“I prefer women who are open-minded, cheerful and expressive,” he says, adding that an ample bosom doesn’t hurt.

“Not everyone can do this job,” Zhong claims.

On the contrary, almost everyone can. The biggest difference between the wannabes and the stars is one of resources.

A successful broadcaster will show up on a platform’s front page, while a self-made up-and-comer will have to fight for recognition in a pool of thousands of others.

Stricter censorship

The viral growth of the industry has alarmed segments of the public and caught the attention of the authorities. Since January, China’s Ministry of Culture has tightened surveillance and censorship rules over live online broadcasting.

In April, the central government issued the “Self-Discipline Pact on Online Broadcasting.” It defines what constitutes unlawful pornography, violence, guns, gambling and drug use in online broadcasts. Anyone who breaches the regulation is put on a blacklist.

In June, 40 broadcasters on nine platforms were banned forever from broadcasting.

“Undoubtedly, the government’s surveillance is good for the healthy growth of the industry, and we support it,” says Shi Peng, vice president of Quanmin TV (quanmin.tv), the only online broadcast platform based in Shanghai.

Quanmin TV’s latest project is to do live broadcasts of a Shanghai Disneyland tour, with its star broadcasters taking viewers around the new theme park.

“Online broadcasting combined with e-commerce is our new path forward,” Shi says.