Haian, China – November 7, 2023 – On November 7, 2023, a crab farmer sold crabs through a live broadcast in Xinhai Village, Haian City, Jiangsu Province, China. (Photo: Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Noor Photos | Noor Photos | Getty Images
BEIJING — Live-streaming shopping is booming in China, spurring the development of new technology products such as virtual reality hosts and mobile data packages.
It’s an attempt at monetization and innovation, and one of the few bright spots in an economy whose growth has slowed significantly.
McKinsey analysis shows that during the Double Eleven Shopping Festival in November, sales of live streaming e-commerce surged by 19%, while sales of traditional e-commerce dropped by 1%.
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, Chinese retailers have hired or cultivated in-house live broadcasters to sell products. Individuals like online influencer Lee Austin have become celebrities and overnight millionaires through live streaming commerce.
Daniel Zipser, senior partner and leader of McKinsey’s Asia consumer and retail practice, said: “Live streaming, especially live commerce, no country in the world can reach the scale of China.”
Now, companies are testing digitally human live broadcasters — either avatars that represent real human hosts or virtual humans created from scratch.
Wang Xiaofeng, principal analyst at Forrester, said that the use of virtual live broadcast anchors was a prominent trend during this year’s Double Eleven.
“The quality has improved a lot this year, and the virtual hosts look more real, at least the virtual hosts I saw on Tencent and JD.com,” she said.
Wang added that using virtual anchors is a way for retailers to differentiate themselves from others and also reduce the cost of hiring high-profile influencers, who may also be at risk of being embroiled in celebrity scandals.
Live broadcast, especially live broadcast business, no country in the world can reach the scale of China.
Daniel Zipser
McKinsey senior partner
Tencent has launched a product that allows users to create a virtual avatar with just three minutes of video and 100 spoken sentences.
The company also has a “Zen Video” platform that allows people to create simple promotional videos using virtual human spokespersons.
Some companies are also combining artificial intelligence like ChatGPT with live streaming.
Online retail giant Jingdong Said that its Yanxi virtual anchor product based on the company’s artificial intelligence model is used for live broadcasts More than 4,000 brands During this year’s Double Eleven.A virtual live broadcast 28 consecutive hoursAccording to JD.com’s technology department.
BaiduOnline shopping, which is famous for its search engine and Ernie AI chatbot, entered the field of online shopping by using its virtual human live broadcast product “Huixingxing” on a large scale for the first time on its “Preferred” e-commerce platform during Double Eleven this year. The company claims that from October 20 to November 11, virtual humans broadcast 17,000 live streams.
During this period, electronics giant Suning’s virtual live broadcast contributed more than 3 million yuan ($420,000) in gross merchandise volume in a single day, according to Baidu. GMV measures sales over a period of time.
Wu Chenxia, the person in charge of Huiboxing, said that the digital live broadcast on Baidu e-commerce platform is currently free for merchants to use. Based on the big language model behind Ernie bot, this product uses big data to create multiple live broadcast scripts in one big data. immediate.
Regulators keep a close eye on the industry.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT has not yet been officially opened in China. Baidu’s Ernie robot didn’t become widely available until Beijing approved it in late August.
The road to 3D live broadcast?
The success of the live broadcast also depends on a stable video connection.
Potential buyers are almost always watching on their phones, while sellers may try live-streaming from the fields where they grow their produce.
mobile service provider China Unicom and China Mobile It has started selling information packages to live broadcasters in some parts of the country.
Joe Wang of Huawei’s ICT department said these packages splice the network together so that live broadcasters get priority service, just like the express lanes on a highway are only allowed for buses to avoid traffic.
All this is based on widespread 5G connectivity, which allows live streamers to broadcast outdoors or on multiple platforms simultaneously, he said.
Wang said that looking forward, 5.5G will theoretically increase download speeds by 10 times and upload speeds by 2 to 3 times compared to 5G. He predicts that 5.5G will enter the hands of consumers as soon as 2025, and the development of artificial intelligence will allow companies to quickly turn 2D images into 3D images.
That means 3D live streaming could become a reality in about two years, Wang said.
Why live streaming is “not a hype”
At the same time, even companies like this Quantization Companies selling adult education courses have also followed suit through live streaming e-commerce, with GMV reaching 13.3 million yuan in August.
CEO Matt Li said that Quantasing holds more than 10 live broadcast sessions at the same time and uses technology to decide what types of products and resources to provide for each session to generate maximum revenue.
Despite the rapid growth of live streaming, it is still subject to strict content regulations in China.
Analysts also pointed out that live sales are often impulse purchases, resulting in the return of many products.
From Jo Malone London to Chinese education company New Orientalcompanies have turned to livestreaming sales as a way to stay connected with Chinese consumers and get them to spend money.
Importantly, McKinsey’s Zipser said, companies are moving from using influencers, known as KOLs in China, to in-house live streaming.
“This clearly shows that (live streaming) is not a hype, but something that businesses are embracing and investing resources into, and the results are here to stay,” he said.
Svlook
