Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 16 January 2023 – Bigo Live, the leading global livestreaming platform, kicked off the new year with a bang, successfully concluding the fourth edition of its annual flagship event, the BIGO Awards Gala 2023. Making a return to its physical format after a two-year virtual presence, the BIGO Awards Gala 2023 was held at Singapore’s historic Capitol Theatre on Saturday, 7 January 2023. The ceremony was attended by 1000 people who flew into the island state from North and South America, Europe, Southeast and South Asia. Over 270 Bigo Live broadcasters, close to 100 Bigo Live families, were acknowledged and honoured. The event bore witness to the sheer extent of the talent the livestreaming platform has to offer, and was livestreamed exclusively on the Bigo Live platform, which saw close to 4m viewers tuning in globally, doubling the viewership from last year, proving that the platform has grown in strength over the years.
Centred around the theme ‘We Live Together’, the BIGO Awards Gala 2023 was hosted by renowned Singaporean actor-comedian Hossan Leong and Singaporean actress Pamela Oei. The event honoured Bigo Live’s diverse pool of broadcasters who have captivated their audience with creativity and originality, as well as those who have transformed their communities by establishing circles of like-minded people through livestreaming.
The three-hour star-studded event recognised the best of Bigo Live’s community through a variety of award categories and saw TracTrac from the United States winning ‘Global Top Broadcaster’, BB&BG from Vietnam winning ‘Global Top Family’, and Pikalydia and TBSinger from Italy winning ‘Most Popular Performance’.
The BIGO Awards Gala 2023 also featured captivating and engaging performances from some of Bigo Live’s top talents including Hanyshow from Egypt, who dazzled everyone with his magic performance, and Girls Dance Group. Online viewers also had a chance to be part of the event’s festivities, as they participated in lucky draw sessions throughout the livestreamed event and won exclusive prizes such as exclusive badges, skins, Bigo Awards Gala virtual gifts and Nova 9 handsets worth a total of S$1,000,000.
The success of the BIGO Awards Gala 2023 is a testament to the transformative power of livestreaming, highlighting Bigo Live’s vision “to be a content platform inspiring one billion people’s lives”. The event is part of Bigo Live’s annual tradition of giving recognition to the people who have contributed to the platform’s role by incubating talent and community-building while promoting inclusivity and diversity. It also showcases the platform’s commitment to bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds through interactive hybrid events.
“This year’s BIGO Awards Gala is a testament to the creativity and hard work put in by our broadcasters to make the best out of the tumultuous years before. We are very proud to bring the BIGO Awards Gala back to Singapore and showcase the best of our platform’s talents to the world. For a long time, we have been looking forward to bringing together the people who make our community what it is today, and we could not have asked for a better start to the new year with our annual event. The BIGO Awards Gala has provided our broadcasters and users with a platform to showcase their talents and passion, and we cannot thank them enough for being a part of this journey,” Mike Ong, Vice President of BIGO Technology said.
Since its inception in 2016, Bigo Live has emerged as an international industry leader and key contributor to the global creator economy with more than 400 million users across 150 countries worldwide. Throughout the past year, Bigo Live has been growing its talent pool of broadcasters and content creators and expanding its localised premium content library with a focus on pan-entertainment offerings, social commerce, gaming, and music content, via various cross-industry partnerships and a series of in-market activities globally.
As part of its ongoing efforts to provide its users with an engaging and immersive livestreaming experience, Bigo Live launched and introduced innovative first-of-its-kind features in 2022 including ‘Virtual Live’ a virtual and augmented reality-enabled feature that allows users to create personalised 3D avatars to represent themselves in real-time, and ‘Community’, an interactive feature allowing users to create, join and manage online communities and connect with other users with similar common interests.
To join Bigo Live’s global community and catch some of the platform’s most exciting talents, download the Bigo Live app (available on iOS and Android) or follow Bigo Live on Facebook and Instagram for more updates.
About Bigo Live
Bigo Live is one of the world’s fastest-growing livestreaming social communities where users broadcast in real-time to share life moments, showcase their talents and interact with people from around the world. Bigo Live has around 400 million users in over 150 countries and is currently the market leader in the livestreaming industry. Launched in March 2016, Bigo Live is owned by BIGO Technology which is based in Singapore.