Brands, consumers, sales ride livestreaming wave

Competition in China's booming livestreamed e-commerce intensified during this year's Singles Day shopping carnival as an increasing number of brands flocked to the segment, which operates mainly via livestreams on short-video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou as well as regular online marketplaces such as Taobao, Tmall, Pinduoduo and JD.

I logged in to the livestreamed sales show of Li Jiaqi, a top livestreaming host known as "lipstick king" on Taobao Live, Alibaba's livestreaming platform, at around 9 pm on Oct 24.

In my role as a consumer, I was rational this time and thought twice before placing orders for modern essentials like skincare and cosmetics products.

On the first day of the presales, Li generated 460 million views in his nearly 10-hour livestreaming marathon. However, Li didn't disclose the sales revenue from the session.

According to Alibaba, consumers increasingly prefer snatching up bargains on livestreams, with the number of viewers on Taobao Live up 600 percent year-on-year in the first hour of the Double Eleven promotion, which kicked off at 8 pm on Oct 31.

"Livestreaming has become a key method widely adopted by consumer brands to retain existing users, attract new ones and boost sales revenue," said Cui Lili, director of the Institute of E-commerce at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Livestreamed e-commerce remains attractive to most Chinese consumers, with one-third of viewers expecting over 25 percent of their Double Eleven spending to occur through livestreaming, according to a pre-gala report from global consulting firm AlixPartners.

While Taobao remains the leading livestreaming platform, with 73 percent of livestreaming watchers saying they will go to Taobao for livestreams, TikTok is catching up aggressively. Some 58 percent of respondents who planned to participate in livestreaming said before the festival that they will use the short-video platform, up from 38 percent last year, the report said.

Mo Daiqing, a senior analyst at the Internet Economy Institute (IEI), said short-video apps are concentrating their efforts on livestreamed shopping, and the online traffic is shifting from traditional e-commerce platforms to short-video apps such as Douyin and Kuaishou, as well as social media platform Xiaohongshu.

This 11-11, Taobao stepped up efforts to look for online celebrities to promote sales and entice a more diversified customer base via livestreaming.

Two celebrity online influencers chose Taobao over Douyin. Chinese entrepreneur Luo Yonghao, also an online key opinion leader on short-video platform Douyin, China's version of TikTok, started a livestreaming session on Taobao Live at 6 pm on Oct 24.

Luo peddled a variety of products like household appliances, mobile phones, computers, foods and beverages, wine and healthcare products, attracting 5.5 million viewers in just an hour, a figure that surpassed 10 million by 8 pm.

Luo is not the only celebrity to be poached by Taobao from Douyin. Yu Minhong, founder of the New Oriental Education and Technology Group, appeared in the company's livestreaming room hosted on Taobao Live at 7:30 pm on Oct 31.

In the run-up to the festival, Mo of the IEI said online retailers should make strategic adjustments to reduce their over-dependence on top livestreaming anchors and support new anchors. More established brands are aggressively moving toward starting their own livestreaming activities, he said.

Livestreaming with virtual influencers has also emerged as a trend. Global consultancy Forrester said more business-to-consumer or B2C brands are leveraging virtual influencers to attract digital-savvy and novelty-seeking young consumers, as they cost much less than human talent while also reducing exposure to risks like celebrity scandals.