Alibaba’s Taobao Live reports over US$60 billion in GMV in 2020 as China intensifies scrutiny of live-stream e-commerce industry
- Taobao Live saw triple-digit growth in its number of daily active users and live-streamers last year, Alibaba said
- Online shoppers became more accustomed to watching merchants sell goods through live videos during the Covid-19 pandemic
Taobao Live, the live-streaming platform for merchants on Alibaba Group Holding’s online marketplace Taobao, has set ambitious plans for the year after generating over 400 billion yuan (US$61.7 billion) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in 2020, despite rising regulatory scrutiny on the live-streaming e-commerce sector.
Taobao Live saw its number of daily active users and live-streamers grow 100 per cent and 661 per cent respectively from 2019 to 2020, according to a statement released by Alibaba, the owner of the South China Morning Post, on Wednesday.
“We kept the momentum going through a dedication towards driving unique value propositions for long-term engagement and business opportunities for the ecosystem,” said Yu Feng, Alibaba’s vice-president who oversees Taobao’s content e-commerce. “Looking ahead, we are committed to further investing in and developing innovative technologies and services to better support our partners.”
Live streaming gained popularity as a new way to reach out to online shoppers during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many stayed home and relied on the internet to meet their daily needs.
Between January and December 2020, the number of Taobao Live users who watched live-stream sessions six times a day and placed an average of more than 10 orders a month increased by 150 per cent, Alibaba said, adding that the average monthly spending of these loyal users exceeded 1,500 yuan.
Taobao Live is now working with Alibaba’s research institute DAMO Academy to develop a smart camera designed to give real-time feedback to anchors during broadcasts to improve the live-stream experience, the company said. DAMO’s artificial intelligence algorithms have already been adopted to provide more accurate recommendations to customers.
On Wednesday, the platform also launched two new tools to better support sellers and influencers, known as key opinion leaders (KOLs), in managing live-stream content, sales, products and fan engagement.
Competition in the live-streaming e-commerce sector is becoming increasingly fierce, with Alibaba’s e-commerce rival JD.com, as well as short video-sharing platforms Kuaishou and ByteDance’s Douyin all fighting to get a slice of the booming market.
In 2020, consulting firm KPMG estimated that China’s live-streaming e-commerce industry was worth about 1 trillion yuan. Taobao Live currently accounts for about half of the market, according to Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, while Kuaishou and Douyin share the bulk of the other half.
Douyin wants to reach a GMV of as much as 600 billion yuan this year in its e-commerce live-streaming business, up from 170 billion yuan last year, according to an internal memo cited by Bloomberg earlier this month.
Kuaishou’s live-streaming business is drumming up excitement and concerns
As for Taobao Live, it aims to help 2,000 live-stream channels and 200 partners reach individual annual sales of 100 million yuan this year. It also plans to invest in developing 300 physical live-stream centres, the company said.
The initiatives come as the live-streaming e-commerce industry has fallen under tighter government scrutiny, with Beijing doubling down on efforts to rein in the unchecked growth of the country’s tech giants.
Under the new rules – also promulgated by the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), among others – behaviours such as peddling fake products, falsifying view numbers, and promoting pyramid schemes would be deemed illegal and banned.
The new rules come a month after the SAMR announced updated regulations that require live-streaming service providers to keep the records of their sales videos for three years.
