Multichannel networks in China's livestreaming industry: Failing industrial lore and limited intermediary roles amidst platformization

In this article, I offer a critical view of the significance of studying multichannel networks as a renewed form of cultural intermediaries, with the conceptual lens of ‘friction’, in the context of platformization of cultural production. I first trace the historical formation of multichannel networks in China that is in tandem with the development of the livestreaming industry. Subsequently, drawing on 15 in-depth interviews with media practitioners and a 3-month participatory observation within a multichannel network institution in Guangzhou, China, I argue for a re-evaluation of multichannel networks’ intermediary positions in the increasingly complex platformization process where cultural production and commerce are deeply integrated. By comparing and analysing both the industrial lore (discourse) of multichannel network practitioners and their industrial practices, the findings demonstrate the messy, unstable, and contingent aspects of multichannel networks’ collaboration with platforms. As platform collaborators, or complementors, multichannel networks are not positioned in equality or sameness, and their collaboration does not necessarily produce communal good. Navigating the complex networks of people, products, and platforms as digital marketplaces, multichannel networks faced a precarious middleman position – their commercial activities were restricted and trapped by the industrial lore adhering closely to the platform logics of visibility and commodification.