Yes, recharging others’ friends’ and relatives’ accounts is supported by bigo recharge, but compliance with the rules of the platform and consideration of risks is a requirement. According to the 2024 official policy of bigo live, one can recharge directly to the target user id using the “Gift Recharge” function. One-time transfer limit is 5,000 diamonds (approximately 50 US dollars), monthly total limit is 20,000 US dollars, and the transaction fee is 0.5% (minimum 1 US dollar). For example, user Zhang Wei topped up $100 for his friend Li Na and actually remitted $100.5. The other side received 10,000 diamonds ($100) +50 diamonds (handling charge payback) and triggered the “Friendship Reward” action and received 200 diamonds ($2) as extra.
Cross-region proxy recharging differences in terms of risk and costs must be highlighted. In the event that the recipient’s account to be topped up is outside their region of operation (such as topping up from the USA to a person in Thailand), the average exchange rate conversion variance percentage is 1.8% (paypal statistics), and it may result in bigo’s “detection of an abnormal transaction” (with probability 32%). For instance, user john did a topup of 200 US dollars on behalf of his friend in Bangkok. Due to the Thai baht exchange rate volatility (1:35→1:34), 68,000 Thai baht actually turned out (originally it was going to be 70,000), causing a loss of around 58 US dollars. Additionally, cross-region proxy recharging incurs the payment of value-added tax (6%-25% charge). For instance, if a German user recharges 500 US dollars to an American account, the actual cost is increased to 525-625 US dollars.
Unofficial charging agency websites are of extremely high risk. According to kaspersky’s 2024 report, among the third-party channels that boast “free recharges”, 41% have account-stealing Trojans or money laundering companies. The probability of user accounts being banned is as high as 67%, and the hit rate of fund traceability is as low as 9%. For instance, user Wang Lei recharged 300 US dollars to his family through a certain telegram channel. The other party’s account was infected with a spy module, and there was a leakage of chat records and ransom of 0.3 bitcoins (approximately 13,000 US dollars).
Batch charging equipment from official sources is safer. bigo enterprise offers enterprise users a “Group Recharge Management Panel”, which facilitates the distribution of diamonds to 100 accounts at once (with a handling fee of 0.3%), and can be overlaid with “enterprise-exclusive rebates” (a 5% rebate on monthly recharges over $10,000). For instance, mcn agency starhub collectively charged back 50 streamers $50,000 and indeed paid out $47,500 (with $2,500 savings), but beforehand they had to go through the beneficiary identification verification (kyc review of 48 hours).
Cost and efficiency differ with payment. The average arrival time of money through Alipay’s proxy recharge is 3 seconds (success rate of 99.9%), while credit card proxy recharge is delayed to 15 minutes for risk control examination (chance of 18%). When cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are used, bigo charges an additional 3.5% handling fee and delays the arrival time to 1 hour (blockchain confirmation). For example, upon depositing 500 US dollars in btc by user Li Na, the actual deduction is 517.5 US dollars. The time of arrival surpasses the live streaming event end time and has an additional penalty of 300 diamonds as a sign-up reward.
Legal regulation and tax imposition cannot be omitted. Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (gdpr), when one recharges more than 1,000 euros on behalf of other individuals, identification of both individuals and confirmation of relationship must be furnished; the account would otherwise be suspended (with a 44% chance). For instance, French user pierre recharged 1,200 euros on behalf of his cousin without furnishing proof of kinship. As a result, his account was suspended for 72 hours and he missed out on the limited-time gift redemption event.
Briefly speaking, the safe way to recharge bigo diamonds for family and friends is: through the official “gift recharge” function (handling fee of 0.5%), use local payment tools (such as Alipay/UnionPay), and ensure both parties’ account regions are identical in an attempt to avoid exchange losses (deviation rate ≤0.5%). For mass or high-frequency needs, enterprise panels (5% rebate + 0.3% handling fee) are a better choice, but in advance kyc certification needs to be completed (average time consumed 48 hours). Avoid unofficial means, risk cost (account suspension + money loss) up to 230% of the amount recharged on other people’s behalf.