“This Is Why Everyone Wants To Be BJ” — Salaries Of Famous Korean Livestreamers Shock Netizens

Recently, the salaries of famous AfreecaTV broadcasting jockeys (BJs) were revealed, causing netizens to understand why so many people are becoming live-streamers.

Thanks to the popularity of star balloons, AfreecaTV is expected to show even stronger results in the third quarter. On October 17, financial information firm FnGuide predicted that AfreecaTV’s third-quarter revenue would increase by 13.53% to ₩92.9 billion KRW (about $68.7 million USD) and operating profit by 16.91% to ₩24.1 billion KRW (about $17.8 million USD) compared to the previous year.

Star balloons on AfreecaTV are cash items that viewers can send as gifts to BJs. Viewers purchase one star balloon for ₩110 KRW (about $0.08 USD), and BJs receive around ₩60 KRW (about $0.04 USD) to ₩70 KRW (about $0.05 USD) per balloon.

BJ Haekjji made around ₩120 million KRW (about $88,800 USD) overnight when a fan sent her 1.2 million star balloons. | BJ Haekjji/AfreecaTVAccording to the AfreecaTV star balloon statistics website Poong Today, BJ COMMANDER ZICO ranked first in star balloons in September, receiving 30,857,532 balloons, which is equivalent to about ₩3.40 billion KRW (about $2.52 million USD) when converted to cash. BJ COMMANDER ZICO | COMMANDER ZICO/AfreecaTV

BJ Kim Siwon, a former member of the girl group GLAM, who won the AfreecaTV BJ award, received 22,247,511 star balloons this year alone. Her estimated annual revenue is expected to exceed ₩2.40 billion KRW (about $1.78 million USD).

BJ Kim Siwon | @siw0ns/Instagram

Netizens reacted to this news, saying, “No wonder everyone wants to become a BJ,” and “These days, elementary school students dream of becoming BJs.” Some netizens claimed that not anyone can become a BJ even if they wanted to. Many agreed that “earning ₩3.00 billion KRW (about $2.22 million USD) through internet broadcasting is amazing.”

BJ Bitberry | Bitberry/AfreecaTV

AfreecaTV, short for “Any FREE broadCAsting,” is a Korean live-streaming platform where many broadcasting jockeys (BJs) gain success and earn money. It first launched in 2005, and in 2019, it was listed 4th in the Forbes list for “Asia’s 200 Best Under A Billion.”