The vast majority of people who try to become Internet celebrities in Taiwan fail to earn a decent income and eventually quit their pursuit of fame to seek a regular job, said 104 Corp, which operates online recruitment agency 104 Job Bank.
A survey of 315 former and current Internet celebrities who are members of the job bank found that 96.5 percent could barely support themselves with the income they made through social media.
Nearly 70 percent abandoned their pursuit of fame just nine months after getting into online streaming or social blogging, it found.
Almost 60 percent of the Internet celebrities were younger than 25, and three-quarters of them were women, the survey found.
The median income of the respondents from YouTube or blogging was NT$30,000 per month, about the same as the starting pay for new hires in the local job market, 104 Job Bank public affairs department manager Chang Ya-hui (張雅惠) said.
Of the about 3 percent of respondents who have been able to make a decent living as Internet celebrities in Taiwan, most were young models or online show hosts, Chang said.
Earning a living as an online celebrity or blogger is difficult due to fierce competition in the field, she said.
To succeed, people must have an open and flexible mind, produce insightful content, have an area of expertise, understand consumers’ needs and grasp marketing concepts, she added.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South