The Japanese live-streaming market has grown rapidly in recent
years. SHOWROOM, the third watched live-streaming platform, has been
a huge success with its unique user interface and the main selling point of
idol live-streaming. This paper applies Collins’ theory of interactive ritual
chains to analyze the way of interaction in SHOWROOM’s live-streaming,
and to explore what makes this interaction successful. On the one hand, via
participant observation and case studies, this paper analyzes the four conditions
and outcomes of interactive rituals in SHOWROOM from a microscopic
perspective. On the other hand, by situating SHOWROOM live in the context
of the entire interactive ritual market from a macro perspective, this paper
suggests that SHOWROOM gains and exports emotional energy through the
marketing strategy of “empathy”, and creates available symbolic capital through
the “intertextual icon”.