CHZZK

CHZZK introduces itself as a place where fun is born, and then says exactly who it is for: a space for gamers and game creators, run by Naver as a game streaming service. It is the youngest-feeling product in this batch, and the one with the least to say about its own size, which is itself a finding: there are no user counts, no streamer counts, no concurrent-viewer figures and no superlatives anywhere in its own copy, only prices, limits and technical detail. What it does advertise is a transfer offer, running continuously, that carries a viewer's subscription period over from another platform — and the platform is never named. The phrase used throughout is simply another platform, and nothing on CHZZK's own pages explains why anyone would be arriving from somewhere else, so the reader who knows the history supplies it themselves. The service sits inside Naver's game division rather than standing alone, which shows up in small ways: the help centre is filed under Naver Game, and the community rules it inherits are that division's.

Four things make up the product, as CHZZK lists them: the home page for finding streams, a real-time chat beside the video, donations, and subscriptions. Chat is where the audience lives, and the donation system built on top of it is the most elaborate in this batch by a distance. A viewer can attach a text-to-speech message to a donation and choose the voice that reads it aloud, or send a video donation that plays a clip over the stream, priced by the second at a rate the streamer sets, with a minimum the streamer also sets. There are also mission donations, party donations and recurring ones. The currency is called Cheese, bought with won. Broadcasting carries an obligation that is unusual in this batch: a streamer who has unlocked monetisation may not simulcast the same live content to another similar service without written agreement, and may not take donations through anything but CHZZK's own mechanism or show such donations on stream, with the entry-level tier exempt from both rules.

The money here is unusually well documented for a platform of this kind, and the split is published rather than hidden: Naver takes 40 percent of donation revenue from a rookie streamer and 30 percent from a professional, 30 percent of channel subscription revenue, and half of advertising revenue. A channel subscription costs 4,900 won a month at the first tier and 14,900 won at the second, though the streamer may rename the tiers, and what the first tier buys is monthly support, removal of ads on that channel, subscriber-only chat, a nickname effect, a badge and emoticons. Two limits matter in practice: only the cheaper tier is sold inside the mobile apps, and a subscription bought in the iOS app is a single month that does not renew itself, so an iPhone user does not get a subscription that continues. Cheese is sold in packs, 1,000 of them for 1,100 won on the web, the difference being value-added tax. A separate subscription called Cheat Key removes advertising across all channels and adds a rewind for live streams and more viewing rights on televisions, and it is the one price the platform does not publish: the help page describes the feature and states no cost, while the App Store listing shows 16,800 won a month. Refunds are limited in the usual way, seven days if nothing has been used on the web, and by the store's own rules when bought through an app.

The rules that are stated govern who may stream and who may pay, and both are drawn at an age the platform enforces rather than recommends. A person under 14 cannot hold a streaming contract at all, and between 14 and 18 the application requires a guardian's consent, with the guardian themselves required to be 19 or older and at least 19 years older than the minor. A viewer under 19 needs guardian consent to make any payment. The content guidelines are broader than most, covering thumbnails, titles, emoticons, banners, tags and links rather than only the video, and they treat a virtual streamer's conduct as the operator's own. Enforcement is published as four steps: a warning, then a limit on the content's reach that cuts a live stream immediately, then a bar on uploading anything new, then a restriction on the channel that also prevents the streamer from appearing on anyone else's. Live content may be recorded to check compliance and is destroyed after seven days. Naver's own community rules sit underneath, promising real-time filtering and round-the-clock monitoring, and applying a zero-tolerance rule to obscene material involving anyone who appears to be a minor. Decisions are also made before an account is opened: Naver may refuse a streaming contract for a criminal record including sex offences, murder, violence, child abuse, robbery or drugs, or for harassment, doxxing, non-consensual sexual content, repeated false reporting or hate speech. Two things are missing that a reader might look for: there is no reporting procedure written down anywhere the help centre can serve, and there is no privacy policy of CHZZK's own, only Naver's, which is written to Korean law and does not claim to meet European or Californian standards.

Gamers and game creators, in the platform's own words, and a Korean audience: the front page is organised around games, esports, original programming, series and computer games, and the store description leads with the Korean leagues. It is a service to watch with other people, which the chat and the donation mechanics both assume, and the esports and sports rights give it a reason to exist beyond individual streamers. Streamers need a studio account, a guardian's consent if they are between 14 and 18, and one of the monetisable grades before any of the revenue terms apply. The practical frictions are worth knowing before signing up: purchases are in won and tied to a Naver account, the mobile web can buy Cheese but not spend it, the higher subscription tier is not sold in the apps, and iOS subscriptions do not renew.

The best-documented revenue split in this batch and the least documented sense of its own size. CHZZK publishes the percentages it keeps from donations, subscriptions and advertising, states its prices, its enforcement ladder, its seven-day retention and the age at which it will let someone stream, and it writes the exclusivity rule into the terms rather than leaving it to be discovered after signing. Against that, the platform will not say how large it is, and never names the competitor whose subscribers it is courting, so the one piece of positioning it does advertise arrives with its subject removed. The gaps are specific rather than general: no price for its cross-channel subscription outside the store listing, no reporting procedure a reader can actually find, and no privacy policy of its own. The most striking rule here is the one about other platforms: for a monetised streamer, this is a service that has to be exclusive, which is the opposite of the arrangement most streamers elsewhere now expect.