Why Kuaishou wants to pivot away from the celebrity influencers who made it famous
- The ByteDance rival has relied heavily on exclusive clans of video streamers to drive traffic
- Experts say grooming smaller individual streamers is essential to diversifying Kuaishou’s reach
Jiazu, a Chinese term meaning family or clan, is a distinctive culture that sets Kuaishou apart from rival Douyin, operated by TikTok owner ByteDance. Like masters of Chinese martial arts, top influencers – or key opinion leaders (KOLs) – often support smaller streamers as “apprentices” by introducing them to a wider audience. Aspiring content creators can get a huge lift in views just by banking on the popularity of their masters.
For a long time, these exclusive clans have been behind some of the most profitable streamers on Kuaishou.
Maomeimei and Dandan, who topped Kuaishou’s e-commerce sales rankings last month, are both apprentices of Xinba. Known as the sales king of Kuaishou, the established KOL once sold 1.25 billion yuan (US$232 million) worth of goods in a single live-streaming session. In January, Xinba’s two most successful apprentices raked in a combined 925 million yuan in gross merchandise volume, according to KOL data provider Bihu Kankan.
Kuaishou has six major clans, but Xinba’s is by far the most popular, drawing an estimated fan base of 265 million. While the other major clans have also found initial success, some appear to be hitting the bottleneck.
Sandage, which roughly translates as “brother of Chinese boxing”, is the head of Sanda – one of the best known clans. During his heyday in 2017, the influencer once saw more than 3 million viewers tuned in to watch a live-streamed event he was hosting. But viewership has declined since 2018 when his clan started to sell products in their streams, he said.