Chinese rock star Wang Feng made a brave move by broadcasting his concert in real time three months ago.
His Storming concert drew up to 60,000 fans to Beijing's National Stadium, while another 75,000 watched it on LeTV.com.
The online viewers brought in an additional 2 million yuan ($326,500) in profit by paying 30 yuan a ticket, supplementing the 25 million yuan made from actual concertgoers.
LeTV.com's music department director Yin Liang says it was more than he'd expected, given that IT projects usually require a lot of investment before they make money.
"The combination represents a new business model for both the music industry and its Internet complements," Yin told China Daily in an earlier interview.
Chinese video websites have been offering live shows since 2012.
LeTV.com previously broadcast a program called Live Life that regularly featured concerts by niche singers. Live performances were occasionally seen on other platforms, such as Tudou.com.
But sites are upping the stakes in the wake of Wang Feng's recent success.
They've started broadcasting superstars' shows and are making live shows regular facets of their schedules.
Music companies' increasing interest and confidence in online live shows has also fueled video websites' growth ambitions.
Since they require viewers' ID information, they provide essential data for marketing analyses, such as age, hometown and favorite songs, EE-Media's music director Shen Yongge tells the Shanghai-based business magazine CBNweekly.
Hunan TV's streaming site Mango TV recently broadcast a concert by teen idol Hua Chenyu, who rose to fame via the Super Boys TV talent show Hunan TV and EE-Media coproduced. Online tickets reportedly sold out in a day.
Over 120,000 fans watched the concert online－10 times the number of physically present viewers. Ticket sales for each mode respectively equaled more than 4 million yuan.
Mango TV also plans to broadcast a live concert by Chinese-Malaysian singer and new reality show star Gary Chaw that will be available only to its VIP users, new media platform Entertainment Capital reports.
A mini concert by "China's godfather of rock" Cui Jian is the most recent success.
While 3,000 fans packed Beijing Workers' Stadium in October, more than 600,000 watched the performance on Tencent Video.
Tencent's efforts to use superstars' live concert series to increase traffic have paid off.
Hong Kong pop star Karen Mok's concert in Taipei had a phenomenal opening on Tencent Video on Sept 27. The company reports it attracted 500,000 clicks in an hour.
And 1 million mainland fans watched Taiwan A-lister A-mei's Taipei concert, which debuted her new album's songs, a month earlier.
Tencent is considering finding sponsors to offer such online live shows for free, Tencent Video's music channel director Feng Tao tells CBNweekly.
Youku Tudou is diversifying its offerings beyond concerts to tap into the sector, increasingly referred to as "fan economics". And it proves fans are interested in more than just star events and various performances.
Youku's Topic Studio program brings newsmakers to debate the current affairs in which they're involved before the camera.
A plus of live online broadcasting is that these programs can be repeatedly viewed afterward, says Du Zezhuang, a TV industry observer and founder of the consultancy Ze Media.
A-mei's Aug 31 live concert on Tencent, for example, had been viewed 28 million times by Sept 25.
"The so-called fans economics prove very effective in attracting a large audience base in a short time. But it's not necessarily sustainable," Du says.
"To draw regular audiences in the long run, video websites still have to focus on 'internal work'. That is, for instance, they must skilfully plan programs and remain sensitive to understanding what's hot among netizens."