What Is Gifting? Livestream Apps, Livers and Listeners Explained

During a livestream, someone sends a gift and a big effect fills the screen. Maybe you’ve wondered whether you could send one too. Here’s how gifting works, what liver and listener mean, how paid and free points differ, and how to avoid overspending.

What Gifting, Liver and Listener Mean

Gifting (ギフティング) is when a listener (viewer) sends a digital gift to a liver (streamer) on a livestream app. In Japanese it’s also called nage-sen (“throwing coins”), and part of the value of the gifts becomes the liver’s income.

The main apps include 17LIVE, SHOWROOM, Pococha and TikTok LIVE. The names differ, but they share the same backbone: you buy gifts with in-app currency and send them during a stream.

1. 01Get coinsFree points or paid points
2. 02Buy a giftAn in-app item
3. 03Send during a streamThe effect plays on screen
4. 04Liver earnsPart of the value becomes income

Names differ by app, but the backbone is the same.

Origin and History

SHOWROOM, which launched in November 2013, is said to have pioneered tipping-style livestreaming in Japan. It grew out of the idea of ending the loneliness of street performances where nobody stops, and a mechanism for viewers to support the streamer with gifts was built in from the start.

“Gifting” has a second meaning too: companies giving products to influencers for free so they’ll promote them. In oshi-katsu the word almost always means tipping on streaming apps, but in marketing articles it means something else.

How It Differs From Similar Mechanisms

GiftingItem effects on streaming apps

• Super ChatYouTube comments colored by amount
• Members-onlyOngoing monthly support
• RaidSending viewers instead of money
• Watching for freeViewing still reaches the streamer as a number

Support does not always mean spending.

Examples

• “In today’s stream, I threw all my free points to my oshi”
• “It’s the last day of the event, so the last-minute gifts are incredible”
• “Apparently my favorite liver finally became an official liver”
• “It scares me that I end up paying whenever they read my name aloud”
• “I’m a hako-oshi, so I spread my gifts across several livers”

Paid Points and Free Points

Many apps offer two kinds: paid points you buy with money and free points you get from logging in or completing missions. 17LIVE’s guide (in Japanese) explains this two-track setup too, and being able to send gifts without paying is standard by design.

• Free points: earned by logging in daily, watching a stream for a set time, completing missions and so on
• Paid points: bought through in-app purchases or on the web. The pricier the gift, the more coins it uses
• Event gifts: during a ranking event, special gifts that add to your score are sometimes offered for the length of the event

Free points often expire, so using them up every day gets you to send more in the end than saving them does. Try a week on free points alone and you’ll get a feel for the app’s atmosphere.

Drawing the Line So You Don’t Overspend

Gifting is harder to rein in than Super Chat because it counts in coins instead of yen. Until you go back to the purchase screen, you can’t tell what “30,000 coins” comes to in yen.

• Think in yen: before you send, work out once how many yen it is
• Set a monthly limit first: write the amount down at the start of the month, as in how to keep an oshi-katsu household ledger
• Be extra careful just before a ranking ends: the room heats up near the deadline, and you’re not the only one who’s heated
• Make some days free-point days: comments and viewing still get through with no spending

As the term mukakin-zei (non-spenders) suggests, simply watching reaches the streamer as a number too.

1. 01Convert to yenWhat is 30,000 coins in yen?
2. 02Set a monthly limitWrite it down at the start of the month
3. 03Cool down near deadlinesRanking ends heat up the room
4. 04Keep some free daysComments and viewing still count

Coins hide the price, so do the math yourself.

Watch for Large Charges by Minors

Consumer centers around Japan have received reports of children running up big charges on a parent’s credit card or carrier billing through livestream tipping. The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan also urges caution in its watch-over information (in Japanese).

• Set a limit on the payment method and don’t share PIN codes
• Check the billing history together at least once a month
• Don’t create an atmosphere where it’s hard to say “I spent it”

In a stream, rewards such as having your name called and getting a reaction come around at short intervals. Knowing the design makes it hard for even adults to stop will solve the problem faster than blame.

Notes From The Oshi Lab: Why Visible Support Is So Strong

The core of gifting is not the amount but the immediacy of “the room reacts the moment you send it.” An effect plays, your name is read aloud, other listeners pick it up in the comments. A gift of a few hundred yen reaches dozens of people’s screens at once. That speed produces stronger satisfaction than spending the same amount in another form. As a way of making support visible, it is one of the most polished mechanisms at present.

1. 01You send a giftA few hundred yen
2. 02The effect playsThe room reacts at once
3. 03Your name is read aloudThe streamer responds
4. 04Other listeners commentDozens of screens see it

↻ and back to the start

Speed of reaction, not the amount, is the core of gifting.

As a business, this design cuts both ways. Part of each gift goes to the liver and the rest to the platform and the app store, so the payback ratio becomes the competitive edge for keeping top streamers. Many companies do not disclose specific payout rates, probably because the rate remains a bargaining chip. The figures that do get discussed come from mixed sources and can’t be taken at face value.

Another thing that comes into view is that the industry itself is hurrying to move away from relying on tipping alone. 17LIVE announced (in Japanese) that in fiscal 2025 it posted its first full-year profit since listing on the Singapore Exchange, raising the share of revenue from new businesses such as live commerce. Building heat through rankings carries more regulatory and critical risk the hotter it runs. The shift from revenue that sells frenzy to a wider landing zone in shopping and other content can be read as a structural change to keep the space for support alive longer.

Related Terms

Super Chat / Dousetsu (concurrent viewers) / Members-only / Musen (support without spending) / Independent vs. agency VTubers