Alibaba’s Taobao Live reaches sales of US$280 million in opening 90 minutes of China’s midyear shopping festival

Sales on Taobao Live, the live streaming platform for merchants using Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace, hit 2 billion yuan (US$280 million) just 90 minutes after the midyear shopping festival officially launched at midnight on June 1.

During this year’s so-called 618 midyear shopping festival, over 300 celebrities including singers and actors will join live-streaming sessions on Taobao Live while 600 company presidents will use the platform to sell their products, according to a post published Monday on Taobao’s official WeChat account.

Dong Mingzhu, the Gree Electric Appliances chairwoman known locally as the “home appliances queen”, will be one of the company leaders on the platform after she sold 310 million yuan worth of goods in a three-hour live streaming event on short video platform Kuaishou last month.

The midyear spending festival was initiated by Alibaba’s rival JD.com in 2004 as its own anniversary celebration but the event has since turned into a countrywide shopping spree on multiple platforms including Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall marketplaces as well as social e-commerce site Pinduoduo.

Chinese e-commerce platforms have doubled down on live streaming during this year’s midyear shopping festival after it became an important sales channel for traditional merchants during the countrywide lockdowns imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Luo Yonghao, whose failed smartphone venture Smartisan left him bankrupt last year, sold more than 100 million yuan worth of products the first time he live-streamed on short video app Douyin in April, with 48 million users tuning in. Chinese home appliances and consumer electronics manufacturer Haier launched new products via JD.com’s self-developed live streaming platform JD Live in February and saw transaction volume of 30 million yuan.