How apartments, trucks and even rocket launches are now being sold via live streaming in China
- The total number of live-streaming video users in China is projected to reach 526 million this year, up from 504 million in 2019
- Amid the live-streaming craze, a number of tech industry leaders and entrepreneurs in China have become live-streaming stars
New apartments, insurance, trucks and even a rocket launching service – nearly everything can be bought via live streaming in China these days.
Live streaming became a hot trend in the country after the coronavirus pandemic forced traditional enterprises to embrace the new sales channel to reach potential customers who were confined to their homes during lockdowns designed to contain the spread of the virus.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), one of the country’s largest banks, hosted its first live streaming session on mobile payment platform Alipay last week to engage with mobile-savvy users.
Focusing on ways to identify and report financial fraud and wealth management education, the live-streaming debut reached an audience of more than 620,000 viewers within the first hour. Alipay is affiliated with Alibaba Group, the parent company of the Post.
“Wherever the customers are, the bank’s services will follow,” Shen Jie, an adviser at ICBC’s Hangzhou Wealth Center and host of the live-streaming event, said in a press release. “ICBC will actively embrace the internet for investment education to better serve the middle-aged and elderly groups.”
03:34
In China, judges become live-streamers as court auctions go online
Live streaming in China has evolved in recent years. First popular in gaming, sports and teen culture, it was then adopted by the e-commerce industry as an exploratory sales channel and has now become a trending marketing channel across a broad sector of industries, old and new. In fact, Chinese netizens can expect to find almost any content they can think of in live-streaming format.