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China’s booming one-man bookstore on WeChat shows how Tencent is taking on ByteDance in live-streaming e-commerce
- A bookseller generating 1 million to 1.5 million yuan daily during the June 18 shopping festival has become a success story for Tencent to tout its Douyin rival
- The Shenzhen-based tech giant is cutting fees and boosting support for live-streaming merchants as it looks to grow its short video platform to profitability
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Zhao Jian used to run a massive bookstore in Nanjing that covered 9,000 square metres; now he runs a one-man shop online in front of a camera.
The shift to e-commerce has turned into a windfall for the 30-year-old merchant. With the right timing and support from WeChat Channels, Zhao found he could sell as many books in a day as he used to sell in a week at his bricks-and-mortar location that had more floor space than 20 basketball courts.
Tencent Holdings has been promoting Zhao’s story for Channels, the short-video platform on the company’s widely used WeChat messaging app. During this year’s June 18 shopping festival, which started in late May, Zhao has been selling an average of 1 million to 1.5 million yuan (US$140,000 to US$200,000) worth of books each day.
The Shenzhen-based tech giant is now boosting support for merchants on its platform as it seeks a greater slice of China’s online retail market. For the duration of the shopping festival this month, Tencent has cut the “technology support fee” for merchants to 1 per cent. Normal rates range from 1 to 5 per cent, depending on the product category.
Live streaming has emerged as a new way of shopping in China, particularly for young consumers who are accustomed to ordering goods they see in videos recommended by merchants and influencers. Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok that is also owned by ByteDance, has moved aggressively to monetise user attention through sales.
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