In recent years, the online live streaming industry has developed rapidly, with the number of live streaming platforms, online anchors, and viewers showing a blowout growth. What legal relationships exist between individual anchors and the platforms they sign up for have also attracted increasing attention.

Through contacting and retrieving some cases, the author believes that the current relationship between network anchors and live streaming platforms can be roughly divided into the following three types:

1、 If there are obvious personal and economic dependencies between the network anchor and the platform, it should be recognized as a labor relationship

Some network anchors use registered accounts provided by the platform for live streaming, and their workplaces and live streaming tools are provided by the platform. The live streaming content, live streaming time, and live streaming location are arranged by the platform, and labor remuneration is paid by the platform. If there are obvious personal and economic dependencies between the two parties, it should be recognized that there is a labor relationship between the two parties.

From the perspective of personal affiliation, if there is an agreement on the platform to meet the daily standard working hours, monthly standard working hours, or related "should comply with the company's various rules and regulations," then both parties should be recognized as having the affiliation of personal rules.

From the perspective of economic dependency, it mainly depends on whether there is a basic wage agreement between the two parties. If it is in the form of a base salary plus commission, there is economic dependency. If there is no agreement on a base salary, the anchor's income is partly or entirely derived from the audience's rewards and business performance. It also depends on the flow of these funds after the worker receives the audience's consumption and the actual manager. If it is controlled by a company and then distributed by the company in accordance with the agreement, judicial practice also tends to identify economic dependencies between the two parties.

This is the case for a significant portion of sales anchors on live shopping platforms.

2、 There is no dependency between the network anchor and the employer, and the live broadcast revenue is distributed proportionally between the two parties, which is a cooperative relationship

There are also some network anchors that do not have personal and economic dependencies with the platform. The platform grants the network anchor live streaming permission on the platform, and the network anchor can perform live streaming on the platform and obtain certain benefits. The network anchor has a great degree of freedom.

From the perspective of personal dependencies, the platform only provides live streaming rooms, network resources, equipment, etc. for anchors, and promotes them. The platform has no requirements for the live content, live time, and live location of the network anchor. At the same time, in addition to complying with the online live streaming industry series specifications, anchors are not subject to management constraints such as live streaming time and total labor required by the live streaming platform, nor are they engaged in other labor tasks arranged by the live streaming platform.

From the perspective of economic dependencies, the income of network anchors comes entirely from network sales, audience rewards, and so on. The platform does not pay the anchor fee, but rather draws a certain commission or intermediary fee according to the agreement of both parties. There is no economic dependency between the two parties.

This is the case for some food anchors, fitness anchors, and more famous delivery anchors.

3、 The network anchor signs a brokerage contract with the platform, and the relationship between the two parties is a brokerage agency relationship

There is also a relationship between the two, where the network anchor becomes the signed anchor of the live streaming platform, and both parties sign a brokerage contract. The platform comprehensively creates network anchors, which perform live broadcasts according to the platform's requirements, and both parties share the profits obtained.

The brokerage contract was initially recognized by judicial practice and academic theory as a "personal attachment" trust contract signed by both parties on the basis of mutual trust. Network anchors and platforms may sign brokerage contracts with a relatively simple nature of commission, or they may sign brokerage contracts with a comprehensive nature that include multiple legal relationships such as commission, commission, brokerage, and copyright.
Some game anchors and talent anchors may fall into this category.

Of course, there are many network anchors who sign up to brokerage companies, and then the brokerage companies cooperate deeply with various live streaming platforms to incubate and cultivate network anchors. In this case, the network anchor and the brokerage company sign a brokerage contract, and the brokerage company signs a cooperation agreement with the platform. The three parties share the profits obtained.

To sum up, as a typical emerging business form, the cooperation methods between online live broadcasting and platforms are diverse, requiring a comprehensive analysis of the rights and obligations of both parties, stripping the cocoon, looking at the essence through the phenomenon, and then identifying the legal relationship between the parties.