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Post at 1-11-2020 16:45 Profile Blog P.M.

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Stickman reports on live streaming from Pattaya beer bars

Live Streaming, A Window Into Pattaya Beer Bars
Stickman's Weekly Column › November 1st, 2020
https://www.stickmanbangkok.com/weekly-column/2020/11/live-streaming-a-window-into-pattaya-beer-bars/

Covid-19 has brought the nightlife business to its knees and bars are desperate to find new ways to make money. Visitors can’t go to Thailand so some bars are taking the bar experience to customers. Live, interactive video streaming from Pattaya beer bars has taken off and each week more bars are jumping on the bandwagon, streaming what’s happening in the bar for the world to see. This week I spent some time watching live streams from Pattaya bars and taking a closer look at the phenomenon.

Streaming predates Covid-19. A Belgian known as Steff Traveller appears to be one of, if not the first person to stream live from bars in Pattaya. Others with names like Cheap Charlie Chronicles and Chuck Wow soon got in on the act. They were the pioneers, but most have since gone by the wayside.

Seeing the potential to make money, bars soon followed. Today, a number of Pattaya beer bars stream live and for some, it’s a very much part of their current business model.

From the comfort of home, anywhere in the world, you can tune in after dark Thailand time and watch Pattaya bargirls doing their thing.

Many of the streams can be viewed on YouTube. You get the video and a side bar where you can type in a message which is seen by the girls in the bar along with everyone watching the stream. You can post messages and interact with the girls. It’s almost like being right there in the bar, right? Hmmm, not quite….but we’ll get to that later.

Streaming is profitable. Viewers are encouraged to buy lady drinks. Clicking on a link takes you to a page where you can buy a lady drink and pay by Pay Pal, credit card etc. Standard lady drink prices apply with ladies getting the usual 50 or 60 baht commission for each lady drink. With no international visitors, this is a God-send for the ladies and the bar owners.

Perhaps the bar best-known for its own livestream is Sexy Bar, on Soi Made in Thailand. Apparently it was the first bar to start regularly streaming – and was doing so even before Covid came along. Streaming has raised the bar’s profile and it now has quite a following.

You know streaming has really taken off when the biggest group of bars in Pattaya, The Night Wish Group, got in on the act and streams live from 13 of its bars.

Streaming is relatively new, but a real sub-culture has emerged amongst the Westerners involved.

Some of these fellows are quite open about who they are and what they are doing and seem to really enjoy being part of the show and including themselves in the stream.

But one wonders if that is a good idea.

Some do some really daft things, others are antagonistic. One fellow said some unkind things about an expat on a stream that were potentially defamatory and rather than face legal action chose to settle out of court.

Some of these streamers are heavy drinkers and later in the night anything goes. Some come across as barely functional.

It’s raw and unedited and while at times you don’t want to watch it, it can be hard to stop as you wonder what the idiot in front of the camera is going to do next.

One fellow appeared to have a breakdown while live-streaming and video showed him self-harming. Others seem to delight in abusing locals, from girls in the bars to everyday Thais. One fellow on Walking Street got up close and filmed a distressed Thai lady crying and was set upon and beaten up by a street vendor.

Some of the streamers lack class and their antics are at times beyond distasteful.

One particularly successful streamer who gets a hard time online goes by the name Barfines And Powerlines. A young Brit with a penchant for fast food and ridiculing locals, he is considered by many as the villain of Pattaya streaming. The level of disrespect he shows towards the girls, at times humiliating them on camera has some questioning how he has been able to get away with it for so long. At the same time he is clearly very good at what he does and has made a lot of money.

Live streaming is just that, an unscripted live view of a real Pattaya bar. That’s part of the appeal, but it’s also part of what I see as the big problem with these streams.

Much of the time the girls sit around looking bored. Often they are on their phone. Girls sitting in front of a camera feeding their face is no fun to look at. Girls screaming out “Hello, darling” in a raspy voice, over and over again, or “I want to drink” are funny the first and second time but before long they start to grate.

I found I could only watch a stream for a few minutes until I was bored. Because the girls are obviously bored.

But plenty of people enjoy it and when the streams start up each night Thailand time, loads of guys tune in from all over the world.

This is very much a Pattaya thing with streams from beer bars, hostess bars and soi 6 knocking shops. Hardly where you find the best-looking girls.

There is potential here and I get the feeling that a pro could come along and really make a killing. Imagine a live stream from one of the best Bangkok gogo bars – a bar with a professional lighting system, dozens of hot ladies and all carefully managed. That would be worth tuning in for – and could potentially have a much wider appeal, beyond fans of Thailand’s nightlife.

Live-streaming from Pattaya beer bars appeals to fans of Pattaya beer bars. As things are at the moment, I’m not sure I can see it growing beyond that.

So just how popular are these live streams?

When I tuned in this week, there would be up to 70 people viewing a live stream at any one time. That’s enough viewers for the bar and the ladies to make a reasonable return. How many Pattaya beer bars could accommodate 70 customers at one time?

But in terms of YouTube videos, these numbers are nothing to write home about. Some Pattaya YouTubers’ post videos which can get 100,000 views within a week or two. So while the live streams have a following, they are not getting anywhere near the eyeballs as slick, edited videos from popular Pattaya YouTubers.

You’d have to be a real hardcore fan of Pattaya bars – or really bored – to tune in to these live streams regularly. Perhaps if I had a few drinks while I was watching I might get excited but the time difference means these girls are doing their thing live on cam as the sun is rising in Kiwiland.

The bars have always been a safe haven and few punters are ok with the idea they might be captured on video in a bar. These streams are not hidden behind passwords or located on naughty websites Joe Public would never come across. They’re on YouTube so anyone can come across them. What happens in the bars should stay in the bars.

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