‘Livestream festival’ promotes Fengxian

A GRAND livestream festival with over 100 wanghongs, or online celebrities, from both home and abroad, will be held in Fengxian District next week.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has spawned many new economy models, especially online, as people are forced to stay at home. Local companies and government officials have eagerly embraced livestreaming to sell products and services to the captive audience created by the pandemic.

The festival, the first of its kind in the city, is expected to further drive the market trend and help to boost the lackluster business caused by the outbreak.

The event is planned at the Oriental Beauty Valley, a business hub specializing in cosmetics, bio-medicine and health-care sector in the city’s southern outskirts, next Wednesday and Thursday.

The line-up, includes celebrities, including opinion-makers, business executives and even district officials, will parlay their expertise to attract online audiences.

About 20 online foreign celebrities will also take part in the event.

They include Thomas Derksen, also known as Afu, a German famous for sharing his travel and life experiences on Chinese social media.

Over 100 products from 60 brands, including many timehonored local cosmetic and food products, will be promoted through the livestream webca sts.

Zhuang Mudi, the Party secretary of Fengxian, plans to present his debut livestream to help sell White Rabbit candy, a time-honored milky confection popular in the 1990s produced by Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food in the valley.

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Guo Fang, the district’s director and other officials, will hawk other products, such as Dingfeng, a time-honored brand which makes soy sauce and fermented bean curd using traditional methods.

Fengxian has created over 30 shared livestream rooms at a brand-new innovation park. Online hosts are encouraged to sign up to base at the site or rent a room. A room costs about 500 yuan (US$70) per day.

“The largest scale online promotion event in Fengxian is expected to support small and medium-size enterprises who are grappling with the sluggish business amid the pandemic,” said a district official.

Fengxian aims to develop the IQ-Valley innovation park on 3358 Pingzhuang Road W. into a heartland for the wanghong economy in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region.

Fengxian will launch its first nightlife food street at the IQValley during the event, with a food festival.

The beauty valley has attracted 100 local and international companies. It accounts for more than 40 percent of the city’s cosmetics industry.

The district expects the value of cosmetic and healthcare products manufactured in the valley to reach 100 billion yuan by 2025.