Top influencer Li Jiaqi’s online return gives Alibaba a renewed edge in huge live-streaming sales channel, analysts say

The return of China’s leading live streamer Austin Li Jiaqi to Taobao Live will likely give Alibaba Group Holding a renewed edge in the competitive field of live-streaming e-commerce, with the new way of shopping still incredibly popular with young consumers despite months of increased regulatory scrutiny, according to industry analysts.

Without any pre-announcement, Li – known as the Lipstick King – returned to Alibaba’s live-streaming platform on Tuesday night, winning over 60 million views for his show, which showcased household goods, underwear and cosmetics. Li’s reappearance came three months after he abruptly ended his show without a full explanation on June 3.

Li is the only top influencer to have made a comeback since China took down the country’s top three live streamers for a variety of reasons over the past 12 months, including content breaches and personal taxation issues. His return to the platform sparked huge discussion among the country’s 1 billion online users.

Live streaming, in which influencers recommend and demonstrate various products to online shoppers, has gradually emerged as one of the leading sales channels in China. Apart from e-commerce giant Alibaba, Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok which is owned by ByteDance – has gone all out to cultivate influencers on its platform and grab consumer attention.

Li and rival live-streaming queen Viya emerged as some of the most important retail sales people in China, which prompted analysts to once ask Alibaba chairman Daniel Zhang Yong whether the platform relied on these stars too much. Together, the two sold a combined 20 billion yuan (US$2.84 billion) worth of products on the first day of last year’s Singles’ Day shopping festival.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.