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BEIJING: Late at night, Lalo López heads to a small Shanghai studio for a live broadcast, offering Chinese products from cycling shorts to vacuum cleaners and Spanish speakers from all over the world.
The 33-year-old Spaniard, who describes himself as an artist, DJ, and YouTuber, is at the forefront of the growing ranks of foreigners hired by mainland agencies to spread China’s livestream sales craze beyond China. its borders.
By some estimates, livestream shopping is a close to $ 70 billion industry within China, attracting influencers who roam markets and shopping malls in search of items to sell to live audiences via the internet. social networks.
Once an obscure way of shopping, live streaming is predicted to change the habits of global consumers, whose footsteps have already turned from high street to online markets.
READ: Comment: In the days of COVID-19, China is revolutionizing e-commerce and delivery
Encouraged by the success of live broadcasts at home, Chinese companies yearn for bridgeheads for their products abroad.
Enter hosts like Lopez, who has lived in China for about nine years and was approached by Beijing-based marketing firm Linkone Interactive after watching videos he posted on YouTube and Instagram.
“When I speak, I look at the product through my culture, through my experience,” said López, whose broadcasts can attract up to 15,000 viewers.
The medium allows you to answer viewers’ questions about everything from clothing and appliances to gadgets in real time, while entertaining them with trivia and outrageous sales patterns.
READ: Tekka market stalls turn to live streaming to sell fresh produce as people stay home amid COVID-19
In a live broadcast, Lopez appears wearing a pink bathrobe over her usual clothing as she demonstrates how she uses a handheld vacuum cleaner, at one point testing it on her hair.
“It’s easier (for me) because of the cultural background we share,” said Lopez, who makes up to 1,500 yuan (US $ 226) per session, referring to his foreign clients.
Livestream sales could this year raise more than $ 150 billion), according to a report by KPMG and AliResearch, a branch of e-commerce giant Alibaba. (Photo: AFP / Hector RETAMAL)
The pioneering live streamers are a diverse mix of merchants, with Polish speakers selling eye massagers and Italian speakers whipping up lights for selfies.
Chinese agencies are now training foreign hosts in China and recruiting influencers abroad, hoping to follow a winning pattern.
Zhang Zhiguo, CEO of Linkone Interactive, said his firm has been training non-Chinese live broadcast hosts for nearly two years as brands look to expand overseas.
It has around 50 influencers now, more than half of whom are based in China, targeting markets like the United States, France, and Spain.
EYE TO CHINA’S SUCCESS
Live streaming has become a natural extension of online shopping.
Even Chinese state media has touted it as a means of alleviating poverty in rural areas where farmers can sell products like tea online.
This year, individual channels on the Taobao e-commerce platform posted sales of more than 100 million yuan (US $ 14.9 million) during a shopping festival in June.
READ: Size, Color and Smell – Live Streaming Drives Big Sales in China
Expectations are now high for the biggest discount period of the year, “Singles Day” on November 11, an indicator of consumer confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.
The industry has grown rapidly after germinating in 2016, when online giants Taobao and JD.com launched live streaming platforms.
This year, it could raise more than 1 trillion yuan ($ 150 billion), according to a report by KPMG and AliResearch, a branch of e-commerce giant Alibaba.
That would more than double the 2019 figures estimated by Shanghai-based iResearch of $ 68 billion.
“Last year, there could be only several hundred (viewers),” Zhang told AFP.
But now “it is normal to get several thousand visits.”
The pioneering live streamers are a diverse mix of merchants, with Polish speakers selling eye massagers and Italian speakers whipping up lights for selfies. (Photo: AFP / Hector RETAMAL)
Keane Wang, planning director at Shenyang-based Neusoft Cloud Technology, said it is establishing a live streaming base in France, aiming to recruit 300 to 500 foreign hosts over the next three years.
“Companies in China see the success of live streaming on (the short video platform) Douyin and Taobao, so they are willing to give it a try and put resources into it,” Wang said.
THE FUTURE IS ALIVE
Success in China may have also inspired others to enter the fight for customer live broadcasts.
The American giant Amazon launched Amazon Live early last year.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore’s e-commerce platform Shopee made a similar move to Alibaba’s Lazada in the same region.
Within China, part of the push for retailers to broadcast live abroad comes from its e-commerce giants like Alibaba.
Its international retail arm AliExpress launched a platform in May to attract more than 100,000 content creators, including live streamers, this year to the overseas market.
They are considering an influencer pool of 1 million people within three years, to be combined with brands and merchants looking to sell their products around the world.
Live streaming is still “weird” in countries like France, but has gained traction in other markets like Russia, says Alice Roche, a Shanghai-based media planner who hosts shows in French and English, selling products from massage machines. even cosmetics.
“Livestreaming is a new way of consuming … in several years, it will be the main way we choose products,” he said.
