How BIGO LIVE makes $8 million per month

There’s drama, there are loners staring into the camera, and yes, there are women dancing. In fact -there is a lot of dancing and singing. This is BIGO LIVE, a top-10 grossing live-streaming app from China, that's HUGE in S.E. Asia. Its content is as mundane as everyday life. But much more addictive.To get more news about bigo recharge, you can visit topuplive.com official website.

What is BIGO LIVE?
Bigo Live is a free livestreaming app. It doesn’t have advertisements. Logging into the app, you'll find an endless stream of broadcasters. Most of them aren't especially talented. Nor are they famous people (which is one of the reasons for the success of apps like Instagram or Musical.ly).
And yet, Bigo sits comfortably in the top-10 grossing lists in India and other countries (Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia). In March 2018 alone Bigo was downloaded over 4million times and grossed $8m worldwide.

If you want to understand how to turn ordinary day-to-day interactions into an addictive money-spinner, then read on!
BIGO is really a game
I've heard the word 'gamification' being thrown around for a long time for consumer apps. Gaming Product Managers like myself, usually disregard these implementations of game mechanics because they are seldom well executed.
But Bigo live is an absolute standout. It has implemented game mechanics brilliantly. There are novelty items, a levelling system, live events, gacha boxes, engagement rewards, appointment mechanics and much more. (It's mind boggling). I've spent multiple hours with Bigo live, and it's clear to me that it should deconstructed for what it really is - a game.

Splash screen
For a registered and logged-in user, ther app opens up into this screen. Here the user can check out the most popular ongoing broadcasts. This has a bunch of faces, which are essentially the profile pics of the broadcasters. This allows them to, for instance, put a highly clickworthy pic.
Note: The other design choice available here was to programatically select a screengrab from the live braodcast - which the app creators have not opted for
Broadcast Screen
Once tapping into a broadcast you'll see this screen. And maybe even this amazing man. This screen can get really busy (I'll give an example later on in this post).
This is where the action happens. Viewers and broadcasters interact here over chat / video / gifts and a bunch of other things!
Social Components
This is where the app truly shines. Games would rely on leagues and/or alliances [2] to optimize for long term user retention. Bigo Live doesn't have to do this. The broadcasters take care of that.
Note: Bigo has introduced a product called 'Family' which bears a lot of resemblance to alliances in mid-core games

For short-term retention there are plently of broadcasts to watch. Mostly it is an audience of men tuning in to watch women. There are dancers, singers, game-show hosts, drama queens and many many other personalities that make swiping through the app fun.