This article takes the JA Guild of HY Livestreaming Platform as its case study and adopts the research methods of participatory observation and semi-structured interviews. It reveals that the labour process of e-sports anchors, as a new professional group, is controlled by the dual “data logic” of game contests and livestreaming. Consequently, the e-sports livestreaming becomes “data labour” that aims at meeting the demands of multiple data production, as the result of the application of “the traffic first principle” in the platform economy. The better the data performance of e-sports anchors, the more stable their labour relations are and the more secure their income is. However, it will be more likely that they fall into the predicaments of “deskilling” and “the hollowing-out of playfulness.” In addition to the suspension of livestreaming or job change as well as the re-creation and delivery of livestreaming videos on multiple online platforms, to form an “interest-based community” between anchors and the operating team behind them, built on both their common interests and emotions, serves as an effective acting strategy to help anchors get rid of the predicaments aforementioned. It is suggested that in the platform economy, the “data logic” is becoming a way of labour control, with a high degree of rigor, concealment and deceit, which exacerbates the asymmetry in the power relationship between online platforms and labourers. The emergence of “data labour” is closely connected to the global boom and expansion of “digital Taylorism.”
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Data Labour in the Platform Economy: Status Quo, Predicaments and Acting Strategies--An Exploratory Study of E-Sports Anchors. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2022, 44(1): 118-136