The Online Live Streaming is booming in China!
The online live streaming is a major outlet on the Internet in recent years, which uses platforms and social media to connect hosts, commodities, and consumers, forming a new type of e-commerce model. From January to October 2023, China’s online live streaming sales exceeded 2.2 trillion Chinese Yuan (~305 billion USD), a year-on-year increase of 58.9%, accounting for 18.1% of the country’s whole online retail sales.
China’s online live streaming originated around 2016, when some influencers or celebrities began to recommend or try products on social media such as Weibo and WeChat, and guide fans to buy. Subsequently, some professional online live streaming platforms such as Taobao Live, Kuaishou, Douyin, etc. also began to set foot in the field, and cooperated with various brands, suppliers, third-party service providers, etc., to create a complete online live streaming ecosystem.
The development of the online live streaming industry has benefited from the following factors:
- Advancements in Internet technology: With the development of technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, the image quality, stability, and interactivity of the online live broadcast platforms have been significantly improved, providing strong technical support for online live broadcasting.
- Changes in consumer demand: With the improvement of consumers’ consumption level and quality, they not only pay attention to the price and function of goods, but also pay attention to the brand, word-of-mouth, and experience of goods. Online live streaming can meet the needs of consumers for information acquisition and trust building through the real display and evaluation of anchors.
- The influence of the hosts expands: With the popularity and diversification of social media, anchors or influencers not only have a huge fan base, but also have multiple channels and formats to interact and spread with consumers. Anchors or Internet celebrities can convert their influence into economic benefits through live webcasting, and at the same time provide consumers with more choices and references.
- The platforms’ ability to innovate have been enhanced: As competition intensifies in the live streaming industry, various live streaming platforms are constantly innovating and optimizing to improve user experience and retention. For example, some platforms have launched functions such as short videos, live broadcast replays, and interactive games in live broadcast rooms to enrich the content and form of online live streaming, while some platforms have launched mechanisms such as distribution, rebates, and lucky draws to incentivize participation and conversion of online live streaming.
According to Analysys – a local internet data analysis agency, in the first half of 2023, China’s livestreaming industry involved 28 categories, of which clothing, shoes and bags, beauty and personal care, and food and beverages accounted for 23.6%, 16.4%, and 15.3% of the sales of livestreaming goods, respectively. According to the data of the New List, in the first half of 2023, China’s online live streaming industry involves more than 1 million hosts, among which Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya, and Xin Youzhi are the top three most popular hosts on Taobao Live, Kuaishou, and Douyin, respectively.
The advantages of live streaming are as below:
- Low cost – For both consumers and merchants, live streaming has greatly reduced costs. For consumers, compared with the cumbersome traditional offline shopping methods, live streaming is presented to the public through the Internet and screen sales. Consumers don’t have to go out and buy goods in the middle of the day, or have to look around in the mall, or talk to salespeople face-to-face and pay. Just enter the live broadcast room you are interested in, listen to the anchor’s introduction, consultation and payment. The whole process is very convenient and fast, and the price of goods in the live broadcast room is usually more favorable, saving the trouble of going out, saving time and money. As a result, livestreaming greatly reduces consumers’ time and money expenses. For merchants, live streaming is a low-cost marketing method. They don’t have to pay a lot of money for a spokesperson, they don’t have to run offline campaigns, and they don’t have to advertise a lot. They only need to pay the anchor a certain amount of remuneration and build a simple live broadcast room. Even some merchants will personally go into battle to explain and sell, eliminating the profit sharing link of middlemen and greatly reducing the cost of sales.
- Wide audience – Traditional offline stores face geographically limited customer groups that can only attract nearby residents or loyal repeat customers. The live streaming breaks through the limitations of time and space, facing the world, as long as there is a mobile phone and data, anyone can make shopping and consumption.
- High interactivity – When shopping offline, many people have little communication with the shopping guide due to psychological reasons such as shyness or embarrassment, and they feel embarrassed when they go home after a hasty purchase and find a problem. Live streaming avoids this situation, and consumers can ask questions to the anchor at any time, and usually get a timely response. You can have a Q&A interaction, and even if you are not satisfied with the goods after receiving them, you can return them for a refund in time.
- High brand exposure – Due to the wide audience and traffic on the internet, the product can be widely known through the promotion of the anchor. This brings a lot of brand exposure and strengthens the brand’s influence.
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