Making a living off livestreaming
Print Edition
Liu Xuan, owner of a boutique shop in northwest China鈥檚 Gansu Province, keeps her store away from the crowded downtown area, as she believes attracting customers is something she can do elsewhere 鈥 on the Internet.
Putting her cellphone on a stand, Liu, 26, started a livestreaming session where she introduced the clothes in her store and interacted with the viewers. She attracted 100 viewers in 10 minutes, many interested in her store and products.
Livestreaming has become a trend that is taking over not only Chinese online shopping platforms such as Taobao but also entity stores like Liu鈥檚.
According to a report released by Taobao in April, over 100 billion yuan (US$14.18 billion) of goods were sold with the help of livestreaming in 2018, up 400 percent year on year.
There are on average over 60,000 daily livestreaming sessions and 180 percent more broadcasters registered on the platform compared with 2017.
During this year鈥檚 Singles Day shopping spree on November 11, more than 100,000 online shops provided a live broadcast for consumer interaction.
The broadcasters include online celebrities and influencers that have millions of fans. For example, Li Jiaqi, a well-known influencer who first made his name by selling lipsticks on Taobao, now boasts over 8 million followers on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.
For Liu, the crowd is much smaller, but she believes in the opportunity the Internet brings. In early November, she even enrolled in a course on photography techniques.
鈥淭he Internet has made the market flat, and livestreaming can help my products reach more potential customers,鈥 she said.
Niu Zhengchao, head of the economic studies institute of Lanzhou Academy of Social Sciences, said the decentralized Internet has blurred the difference between opening a store downtown and in suburban areas.
鈥淭he live broadcasts bring views that can be turned into profits,鈥 Niu said.
Many customers find shopping through livestreaming a more time-saving alternative than going to malls.
Mi Sitian, a new mom from Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, is a die-hard fan of livestreaming. She spends around two hours watching the broadcasts every day and midnight is often her preferred time to make the purchases.
鈥淚t鈥檚 quite a luxury to go to shopping malls after having a baby,鈥 she said. 鈥淥nly at night can I have some leisure time to watch the broadcasts and shop.鈥
Mi said the broadcasts enable her to communicate with the seller face to face, which is an advantage over only browsing the introduction pages. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just like shopping in the real stores,鈥 she said.
Wang Xiaolu, a girl from Lanzhou, is fascinated with broadcasts of farmers opening mussels in search of pearls. Farmers charge viewers for opening mussels. When a pearl is found, it belongs to the viewer.
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