The name comes from the Chinese phrase pao ma deng, written as 跑馬燈, which describes a marquee or scrolling display where lights or characters move in a continuous line. The term is widely used for LED signs, news tickers and the scrolling captions seen in videos and livestreams. Online, creators borrow that idea for a very short audio sting that marks text arriving on screen. Because it lasts well under a second, it works as punctuation rather than music, and it remains popular for announcements, alerts and playful headline reveals.