From “Lipstick King” to Basketball Star: What is Live Shopping, China’s Latest Fashion

nba star, James HardenSales 10 thousand bottles of wine your brand in China in a matter of seconds. This is a sensational result obtained by a basketball champion thanks to the magic Live Stream Chinese, a phenomenon that has been in vogue for several years behind the Wall. And which attracts tens of millions of virtual users, constantly growing and ready to buy products advertised through live recordings of various video sessions.

The Harden Case

Harden, a quarterback (perhaps briefly) for the Philadelphia 76ers, promoted his wine in China. Jay Harden live last tuesday DowinChinese version of TikTok hosted by an online celebrity Crazy brother Yang.

The live broadcast attracted more 15 million viewersaccording to a Chinese newspaper Global Times. This is a huge pool of potential customers.

During the live broadcast, Jan asked Harden how many bottles of wine he usually sells per day. “Somebodythe athlete replied.I will give you an idea of ​​how many orders I can make in an instantYang replied, deciding, for 14 seconds, opening shopping by the public in front of the camera. On the first try, 5,000 orders were placed for two bottles at $60 a pair. After the second round, another 6,000 bottles were sold out in seconds.

The phenomenon of live broadcasting in China

In recent years, live TV shopping in China has become business boom, as well as a real cultural phenomenon. Major streaming platforms have registered almost $174 billion sales in the first six months of this year, according to the agency Xinhua, Chinese state news agency. The same source said last month, citing data from the Department of Commerce, that more than 2.7 million streamers hosted 110 million shows and sold 70 million products.

Celebrities and sports stars are used to partnering with streamers to promote their products. Harden’s story is a prime example of this trend. Harden’s live stream has become a trending topic on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site. After all, with a population of 1.4 billion and a middle-income group of over 400 million, China is the world’s most promising market.

golden business

Some streamers have even become famous. The most relevant ones, including Li Jiaqi — whose prowess at testing and promoting makeup products earned him the moniker “Lipstick King” — are capable of attracting tens of millions of viewers per session. Symbolic example? Kim Kardashian she once appeared with another top Chinese streamer, Via, to promote her perfume in China. He ended up selling 15,000 bottles in just a few minutes.

As wrote The newspaper “New York Timesthis format appeared in China a few years ago, but has become ubiquitous in pandemic coronaviruses. Nearly half of China’s Internet users (about one billion) have now experienced this trend, but it remains little known in the West. For Americans it can be remembered TV shoppingbut interactive and, as a result, much more addictive.