Top Chinese live streamer sells nearly US$2 billion in goods in 12 hours in run up to Singles’ Day shopping festival

Li Jiaqi, aka Austin Li, pre-sold US$1.9 billion in products in a marathon 12-hour live-stream

The show attracted nearly 250 million views – a record for any show live-streamed on Alibaba’s Taobao online marketplace

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Li Jiaqi, aka Austin Li, earned his ‘lipstick brother’ nickname by trying on various make-up products on his show. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 4:04pm, 25 Oct 2021

China’s Li Jiaqi, a top live-stream salesman widely known as the “lipstick brother”, sold US$1.9 billion in goods on the first day of pre-sales leading up to Alibaba’s annual shopping festival, as the country’s consumers splash out despite an economic slowdown. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

Li, who earned his nickname by trying on various make-up products on his show and is also known as Austin Li, pre-sold 12 billion yuan in products ranging from Shiseido lotions to Apple AirPods, according to preliminary data compiled by e-commerce data specialist Taosj.com.

Li’s sales are a record for any show live-streamed on Alibaba’s Taobao online marketplace, according to Taosj.com data. He has also survived a recent regulatory crackdown on androgynous pop idols and others who don’t conform to the country’s gender norms or express a more feminine style.

Live-streaming is part variety show, part infomercial, part group chat – a format pioneered in China that’s grown more popular since the pandemic started. Li’s show lasted a marathon 12 hours – the first day of China’s more than three-week “Singles’ Day” shopping binge – and attracted nearly 250 million views, Taobao showed.

Li at a Louis Vuitton spring/summer 2021 event on August 6, 2020 in Shanghai, China. Photo: Getty Images

“Normally we have about 20 million views a show daily, but we got 250 million today, all the girls, where are you emerging from?” Li said in a post on Weibo, a microblogging site.

Although the final sales from the presale show are likely to be lower as some shoppers cancel items ordered during the early session, the number shows the growing strength of China’s innovative e-commerce sphere in the face of hurdles including ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.