Livestream e-commerce: why China’s brands are obsessed with it?

直播

LIVESTREAM

Why China’s brands are obsessed with it?

Livestreaming has already been a growing trend in China for a while, but it has grown exponentially since the COVID-19 outbreak. At this point, should we consider livestreaming as the future of e-commerce? Let’s start from the beginning: 

在中国,直播的形式已经在很长一段时间里呈现一种上升态势了,而自从新冠疫情爆发以来,更是呈指数级增长。基于这一点,我们能否将直播视为电子商务的未来?让我们从头说起:

What Is A Livestream?

什么是直播?

Livestreaming in e-commerce emerged in 2014 when Moguje, a Chinese fashion e-commerce platform, started experimenting with it, while soon after, Alibaba’s Taobao, which is the world’s biggest e-commerce website, followed suit with its own livestreaming channels.

直播出现于2014年,中国时尚电子商务平台蘑菇街开始尝试电子商务的时候。不久之后,全球最大的电子商务网站阿里巴巴旗下的淘宝也相继推出了自己的直播频道。

 

At the very beginning, a livestream was mainly represented by hosts who were trying on different types of clothes, while giving viewers the opportunity to interact live about adding different accessorizes or with specific questions about fabrics and style.

一开始,直播主要由试穿不同风格服装的主播来展示,同时让观众有机会就添加不同的配饰或对面料和风格的提出具体问题进行现场互动。

LIVESTREAM

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Today, online shopping in China has become an increasingly social experience with popular celebrities livestreaming their shopping experiences. The hosts of which are now Key Opinion Influencers and Leaders (KOCs and KOLs), along with some of the most popular actors and singers, who are paid to promote different products and brands.

如今,网络购物在中国已经越来越普遍,受欢迎的名人会在直播中分享他们的购物体验。主播一般是重要的舆论影响者和领导者(KOC和KOL),以及一些最受欢迎的演员和歌手,他们被重金聘请来为不同的产品和品牌进行推广。

ON AIR

Livestream In Numbers

一些关于直播的重要数据

China’s livestreaming industry was already the largest in the world before the COVID-19 outbreak, but since then, it has received an unexpected boost that has transformed to become the main obsession of marketers. 

在新冠疫情爆发之前,中国的直播产业已经是世界上最大的了。从那之后,它更是受到了意想不到的刺激,同时也改变了营销人员的主要关注点。

 

The number of users within China has increased 10.6% year on year to 504 million in 2019 and, even before the virus, it was estimated that the figure will reach 526 million in 2020. At the same time, China’s livestreaming market reached approximately 90 billion RMB and will most likely crush the 112 billion RMB projections originally made for 2020.

2019年,中国国内直播用户数量同比增长10.6%,达到5.04亿,即使在疫情爆发之前,预计在2020年这一数字也将达到5.26亿。与此同时,中国的直播市场规模达到了900亿人民币左右,很可能会打破最初对2020年达到1120亿人民币的预期。

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To give you an example, for Singles Day 2019 (11.11) Alibaba’s livestreaming generated 20 billion RMB (US$2.9 billion), accounting for around 7.5% of the group’s overall RMB 268.4 billion in sales for the whole shopping holiday. 

举个例子,在2019年的双11购物节中,阿里巴巴的直播业务创造了200亿人民币(29亿美元)的交易额,约占双11购物节里整个集团2684亿人民币总销售额的7.5%。

 

More recently, on February 10th, Alibaba announced that it will waive normal requirements for offline store operators across the country to join Taobao Live and made operational tools free of charge. This decision resulted in a growth in new streamers eight times higher than in previous months, and orders surging by an average of 20% each week.

近期在2月10日,阿里巴巴宣布,全国所有线下商家全部可以零门槛、免费入驻,免费使用运营工具。这一决定导致新主播的增长达到前几个月的8倍,订单平均每周激增20%。

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Livestreaming’s 5 Disrupting Players

直播的5大强势玩家

Following Alibaba’s incredible success on Taobao, almost all of China’s major e-commerce companies are getting on board or are making plans to join livestreaming platforms.

继阿里巴巴在淘宝网取得令人难以置信的成功之后,中国几乎所有的大型电子商务公司都在加入或计划加入直播平台。

01

Taobao Live is one of the biggest Chinese livestreaming platforms both in terms of the number of merchants and overall user base. Its audience is mostly made up of females between 18-34 years old, who are particularly attracted to categories such as clothing, beauty products, food and accessorizes.

无论从商家数量还是整体用户群来看,淘宝直播都是中国最大的直播平台之一。它的观众大多是18-34岁的女性,她们特别喜欢服装、美容产品、食品和配饰等类别。

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02

Kuaishou first entered the livestreaming world in 2017, but it grew extremely fast until eventually reaching incredibly successful conversion rates for its livestreams. The user ratio is more balanced than Taobao, with around 54% male and 46% female users between 25-50 years old, with the majority of them coming from third and fourth-tier cities.

快手于2017年首次进入直播世界,但它的发展速度非常快,其直播的转化率高到令人难以置信的程度。其用户比例比淘宝更为均衡,25-50岁的男性约占54%,女性约占46%,其中大部分来自三四线城市。

03

Douyin is a newcomer, but its disruptive success achieved in the past few months will likely further boost its livestream positioning. Its 400 million daily active users are mostly located in first and second-tier cities, and appear to be interested in limited editions and products on sale, possibly up to 200 RMB.

抖音是一股新血液,但它在过去几个月里取得的颠覆性成功可能会进一步提升其直播定位。它的4亿日常活跃用户大多分布在一、二线城市,似乎对限量版和限量销售的产品感兴趣,单价可达200元人民币。

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04


Xiaohongshu launched its livestreaming platform at the beginning of 2020 and it is structured differently from its competitors. In fact, by virtue of being an app used for other purposes such as product reviews and lifestyle inspiration, the success of a livestream depends on the KOL’s fan base and loyalty within its community

小红书在2020年初推出了其直播平台,其结构与竞争对手不同。事实上,作为一款用于产品评论和生活方式灵感等其他目的的app,其直播的成功取决于KOL的粉丝群和对社区的忠诚度

05

Weibo joined the competition by upgrading to e-commerce livestreaming services, with a service platform linked to Taobao. The user base ratio is equally split, with most of its users coming from first-tier cities, and they seem to be particularly interested in clothing, cosmetics and daily necessities.

微博以升级为电子商务直播服务的模式加入战场,其服务平台与淘宝网相连。用户基数的比例是一样的,大部分用户来自一线城市,他们似乎对服装、化妆品和日用品特别感兴趣。

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To find out more about how to promote your products on e-commerce livestreaming platforms, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Eastant team at info@eastant.it.

要了解如何在电子商务直播平台上推广您的产品,请随时与我们亦适达团队联系,邮箱:info@eastant.it。

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