Yang Mi, Fan Bingbing and Angelababy among Chinese celebrities turning to live-stream e-commerce on Douyin and Taobao Live during Covid-19 – who made millions and who failed?

Sep 28 , 2020

Angelababy, Fan Bingbing and Yang Mi have all hosted live streams to promote various products on China’s e-commerce platforms – but who pulled it off the best? Photo: Taobao/Weibo

With film and TV productions halted during the pandemic, an increasing number of A-list Chinese celebrities turned a new leaf as live-stream sales hosts on Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Taobao – so who made a mint, and who came out looking a little bit silly?

“Buy it now! Buy it now! Five, four, three, two, one … it’s all sold out!” yells Viya Huang, the Chinese live stream host who once shifted 5,000 pairs of jeans in a matter of seconds during a live sales session.

Live streaming e-commerce in China is nothing new. In 2014, Chinese fashion e-commerce platform Mogujie began to experiment with it, and was quickly followed by Taobao, the world’s biggest e-commerce website, founded by Alibaba – owner of the South China Morning Post – soon after.

Viya Huang is dubbed the dubbed China’s live streaming sales queen. Photo: Weibo

In the past few years, names such as Viya Huang and Li Jiaqi – dubbed China’s live streaming sales queen and king respectively – have become familiar faces to most netizens, selling products that many would deem outlandish.

Huang once managed to sell several rocket launches (yes, rocket launches) for a total of 40 million yuan (US$5.9 million) on Taobao, and just this August, she achieved 2.1 billion yuan of sales within a month, again, via Taobao’s live platform. Meanwhile Li, known as the “Lipstick King”, is best known for once selling 15,000 lipsticks in five minutes.

Part-salespeople and part-influencers, they push everything, from Louis Vuitton bags to home-grown oranges. And millions are tuning in to watch.

Huang (left) hosting a live stream during which she sold a 40 million yuan rocket launch service; “Lipstick King” Li Jiaqi (right) trying out different shades of lipsticks on his arm. Photo: Weibo/Xiaohongshu

Nevertheless, it’s the current pandemic that has sent this particular style of marketing into the stratosphere.

During the outbreak in China, movie production was suspended and studios were temporarily closed, leaving an increasing number of celebrities in the country free to try their hand at live streaming.