Juliet Omondi broadcasts live to her fans in Kenya using Chinese app Live-Baze. [Photo by Edith Mutethya/China Daily]

Tipping Points Technology Limited, an information and communications technology company based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, East China, is bringing new opportunities for Kenya's performing artists through its live streaming app Live-Baze.

The artists are able to display their talent, earn money and fame, and receive virtual gifts from fans. Launched in October last year, the free app features exclusive content like music, dances, gaming, live chats and behind-the-scene activities at events and concerts.

Nearly 70 experts from such disciplines have already found in Live-Baze an e-platform to reach audiences as large as 5,000. Live-Baze users buy credits through Paypal or Mobile Money to offer virtual gifts to performers.

For their part, artists help peddle merchandise through endorsements and hyperlinks on the app. Live-Baze generates revenue through commissions on transactions for virtual gifts like e-diamonds that can be converted into cash. Fifty e-diamonds equal one Kenya shilling (Ksh). TPTL's agent receives such gifts through M-Pesa, a popular mobile money-transfer service in Kenya.

So far, the company has invested $8 million and is confident of success. TPTL is partnering with Southwell Solutions Africa Ltd, a local app firm, to integrate mobile payments into Live-Baze.

Steve Thiga, Southwell's project manager, said the initial focus is on getting more and more Kenyans to use the app first and understand its features.

They will be helped by 20 stand-out live streamers－online celebrities with a strong social media presence－that Live-Baze is planning to hire full-time from its current pool of 70 artists. For these additional services during allotted online time, each artist will be paid up to $300 per month.

As Live-Baze streamers, online celebrities are expected to convert their followers into app users. This has implications for products and services relating to entertainment, fashion, cosmetics and music, said Thiga.

Mobile internet subscriptions in Kenya, whose population is 48 million, stand at around 40 million, with smartphones accounting for 44 percent of mobile phones.