China’s JD.com ramps up AI use on its platform as founder Richard Liu Qiangdong debuts avatar in live-streaming sessions

The JD.com founder’s avatar is powered by the company’s own ChatRhino large language model
The two live-streaming sessions hosted by Liu’s avatar on Tuesday generated more than 20 million views combined

E-commerce

Coco Fengin Beijing

Published: 7:01am, 17 Apr 2024

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Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is ratcheting up the use of artificial intelligence (AI) on its platform, as the avatar of founder and chairman Richard Liu Qiangdong debuted as host of two live-streaming sessions on Tuesday.

Liu’s avatar, powered by JD.com’s own ChatRhino large language model (LLM), not only succeeded in replicating the company founder’s appearance, voice and accent, but also his known habit of waving his hands as he speaks. LLM is the technology used to train generative AI services like ChatGPT.

The virtual Liu, however, mostly read from a prepared script and did not interact or answer questions from the online audience.

Still, the inaugural live-streaming sessions hosted by Liu’s avatar were a success, as the two campaigns – each lasting less than an hour to promote consumer electronics devices and groceries – generated more than 20 million views combined.

The avatar of JD.com founder and chairman Richard Liu Qiangdong hosted two live-streaming sessions on the platform on April 16, 2024. Photo: Handout

The virtual Liu is expected to host more live-streaming shows in the future, as JD.com touted that its AI-powered virtual streamers now covered more than 4,000 brands.

That initiative has lowered the cost of holding such sessions by 90 per cent, compared with having human hosts, according to the Beijing-based company.

JD.com’s virtual hosting technology can also reply to 70 per cent of the frequently asked questions during a live-streaming session, according to the company.

The debut of Liu’s avatar shows the growing trend in China to create and use virtual live-streaming hosts capable of round-the-clock sessions, which has raised the stakes in this market segment and potentially disrupt the occupations of millions of human live streamers in the industry.

02:08

Virtual hosts are rising stars of China’s online shopping platforms

JD.com’s campaign with virtual Liu is likely to push the envelope on how live-streaming campaigns will be conducted on the mainland, especially during the Singles’ Day shopping festival later this year.

During last year’s Singles’ Day presales campaign, Alibaba Group Holding’s sessions on Taobao Live were led by a dozen human live streamers, including top influencer Austin Li Jiaqi and actor-singer Allen Lin Yilun. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

JD.com in late February already applied for trademarks related to its founder’s avatar, including “Liu Qiangdong”, “Old Liu” and “Old Liu’s special session”, according to records on corporate information provider Qichacha. The applications are being processed by the Trademark Office of the China National Intellectual Property Administration.

JD.com offers US$138 million in cash incentives to boost video content

Earlier this month, JD.com said it will offer 1 billion yuan (US$138 million) in cash incentives to drive video content on its platform, as live-streaming campaigns continue to drive sales for e-commerce platforms on the mainland.

Last year, 71.2 per cent of Chinese netizens bought goods online after watching short videos or live-streamed content, up from 42.7 per cent in 2022, according to a recent report by the China Netcasting Services Association.

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