With a special focus on the commercialization of creative videos, this article explores the research question of how digital platforms’ affordances simultaneously allow and constrain video producers’ commercialization activities in the platform era. This study adopts a case study design that focuses on the Chinese digital video producer Zheng Yun, founder of Zheng Yun Studio, using ethnographic participant observations and in-depth interviews. It explains how creative producers such as Zheng Yun struggle to survive in the context of intensified platformization and how they benefit from the digital platforms by employing various commercialization mechanisms, including the Revenue Sharing Program (RSP), Embedded Product Placement (EPP), Franchise Chains, Agent-commission, and Crowd-funding. This research also demonstrates the asymmetrical power relationships between platforms and video producers, which prompt us to rethink the political nature of platforms and the diversified nature of platformization in the digital platform age.
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