Star livestreamer in city
Chinese celebrity online today but products hush-hush
Sooner or later, NZ firms would need to consider this platform for their products.
Henry Chung, Massey University
China’s top livestreaming celebrity, who holds a record of generating $66 million in sales over 13 hours, will be livestreaming New Zealand products from Auckland.
Viya, a top livestreamer on Chinese online shopping website Taobao, goes online today, but her crew are not saying what New Zealand products will be promoted.
Viya is considered a key opinion leader and has nearly 6.5 million followers on Taobao, and most of them are ready buyers.
It is reported that her followers will buy whatever she recommends without even reading about the product.
Joyce Liu, director of Touchpoint Creative, who is handling communications for Viya’s visit, says about 20 products have been selected for livestreaming — ranging from honey, dairy, skincare and cereals.
“They were chosen based on unit price, background of the companies and reputation of the products,” Liu said. “Viya’s followers have developed trust in her, and so the products that she promotes must be most competitive in price and quality.”
Products Viya promotes are often sold out within a matter of seconds, Liu said.
Livestreaming has been a main focus for many Chinese e-commerce platforms, including the Alibabaowned Taobao site.
New Zealand will be the third
country outside of China for Viya, who livestreamed her way to $57m sales in Thailand three months ago.
In Korea, 12 containers of products sold within five hours by Viya, which generated more than $30m in sales.
Massey University China marketing expert Henry Chung says e-commerce livestreaming has become an increasingly popular method of selling in Asia.
Viya holds the record of generating over 300 million yuan ($66m) sales in a single day of livestreaming, and last year made a total turnover of 2.7 billion yuan.
Taobao has its own set of livestreaming influencers, and more than 1200 of them have more than a million fans. Last year, 81 influencers generated over $23m in sales each through livestreaming.
The five best-performing industries on its livestream channels are jewellery, women’s fashion, accessories, skincare, cosmetics and children’s fashion, according to Taobao.
Although relatively new to western markets, with Amazon Live launching its live video shopping only last year, the Chinese have been doing it for several years.
“Sooner or later, NZ firms would need to consider this platform for their products,” Chung said.
“It’s a business opportunity that cannot be ignored . . .”
Viya will start her Auckland livestreaming from 11pm, but only her followers and those with Taobao accounts will be able to watch.
According to Liu, Taobao has more than 700 million monthly active users — nearly all account holders are China based.