China’s car dealers embraced live streaming to connect with consumers during coronavirus lockdown

With their showrooms closed during the coronavirus lockdown last month, China’s car dealers embraced live streaming as a way to keep the conversation going with potential consumers who were also stuck at home.

The number of live-streaming sessions involving the auto industry jumped 15-fold in March compared to January, and total numbers of participants was up sixfold, data from a report jointly released by specialist automotive website and app Dcar and the China Automobile Dealers Association showed.

The peak during this period saw 7,000 car-related live-streaming sessions in a single day, according to the report. As well as professional live-streamers, car makers and dealers stepped up their efforts to promote car sales online. New live-streaming broadcasters from the sector have been growing at a rate of 10 per cent per day.

The report, released last week, compiled data from Dcar, news aggregator Jinri Toutiao and video and live-streaming sites Douyin and Xigua, which are all services operated by Beijing-based start-up ByteDance.

“The new trend of automobile live-streaming has arrived, which has captured the attention of both consumers and content creators with its informative, efficient and interactive way of connecting to its users,” Ma Jun, Dcar’s head of product, said in a statement.

Live-streaming has become the go-to channel for Chinese industries and businesses whose offline sales have been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak which emerged in January, forcing the government to order store closures and travel restrictions until the situation eased in late March.