Brands focus on stories in refining China livestreaming to boost profits

 When tech giant Apple joined China's livestreaming frenzy, a major driving force of the e-commerce boom in the world's second biggest economy, it launched without deep discounts or a celebrity host to pull millions of viewers.

Yet Apple's show, hosted by product experts offering tips on making movies with iPhones or using the Apple Watch as a workout aid, drew 300,000 likes and more than 1.3 million viewers within an hour in May.

Apple's move illustrates how livestreaming is evolving in China from an initial model of massive sales via big discounts, as more big brands seek greater control of a process rendered costly by a fragmenting market and growing use of superhosts.

"You have to move towards content instead of promotion," said William Lau, chief executive of multibrand beauty retailer Bonnie and Clyde.

"When you focus on building content instead of offering 40% off, you actually get more resonance with the consumer and you also get follow-up in terms of return sales."

Livestreaming generated sales of $480 billion in China last year that are likely to jump 30% this year, says research firm eMarketer, even in a difficult economy, showing the industry's resilience.

Stellar growth boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic saw the industry employ more than 1.23 million livestream hosts by 2020, says researcher iResearch, along with numerous accompanying livestream-related training academies and agencies.

One of China's best known hosts is Li Jiaqi, the so-called "lipstick brother," who sells everything from toilet paper to home appliances on a show offering viewers the best discounts via Alibaba's Tmall.

While Tmall and Li Jiaqi remain powerful, brands moving away from that strategy are cutting reliance on massive discounts and even his famous exhortation, "Oh my god! Buy it!" in favour of a focus on storytelling.

"Brands are building up their own channels as opposed to paying these other guys 40% to 50% of the revenue from a livestream," said Jacob Cooke, co-founder and chief executive of Beijing e-commerce consultants WPIC Marketing + Technologies.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/focus-brands-focus-stories-refining-230000517.html