Live-streamers flock to eastern China’s e-commerce hub in search of fame and fortune, hawking wares online
- Yiwu’s Beixiazhu aims to become China’s live-streaming e-commerce capital, as people flood in looking for new opportunities in the burgeoning industry
- The city is offering incentives to live-streamers amid a slump in exports caused by the Covid-19 pandemic
When night falls in Beixiazhu, the 22-hectare e-commerce hub in eastern China jumps to life. The roads congest with auto rickshaws with open beds full of goods, forcing local authorities to intervene and direct traffic. Amid the sounds of vehicles rolling by, a cacophony of tearing tape fills the air as express delivery services rush to fulfil orders.
The bustling, sleepless village of Beixiazhu, located in the manufacturing hub of Yiwu in Zhejiang province, has quickly transformed its traditional export-oriented industry into a live-streaming e-commerce La La Land. Since the pandemic upended the lives of exporters in the city, many have turned to live streaming in pursuit of new opportunities and wealth. Yiwu, a county-level city with a population of 1.2 million, now has about 60,000 people working in live-streaming e-commerce, according to local government data.
One of those people is Xiang Nan, a moon-faced 32-year-old who spends his afternoons walking around the village looking for goods he can promote in his streams. Nearly every ground-floor shop in Beixiazhu features conspicuous signs with the words “supply chain” and “live-streaming hot-selling product”, signalling that they offer not only sample goods, but also supporting services for online salespeople like Xiang.
“Those people driving tricycles might have a net worth of millions of yuan,” said Xiang, pointing to the men crowding the street. “They drive tricycles during the day, and sports cars at night.”
This is the life Xiang aspires to. He said he wants to become an online celebrity, which has made a select few very wealthy by selling products online. Live-streaming stars like Viya and Xinba can sell as many goods in a few hours as a normal shopping centre might sell in a year.
Live-streaming e-commerce is a promising area for many in China. Even those who do not strike it rich could make enough money to support themselves. In the first half of 2020, live-streamers in Yiwu hosted more than 72,000 sessions, with turnover exceeding 9.8 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion), according to state broadcaster China Central Television.