Shanghai’s Covid-19 lockdown delivers another heavy blow to live-streamers, devastating ads and sales
- Disruptions to deliveries have made it more difficult for live-streamers to sell goods and get advertising deals, leading some to give up during lockdowns
- Live-streaming e-commerce boomed in the early days of the pandemic, but China’s zero-Covid policy is presenting new economic challenges
The six-week-long lockdown in Shanghai, along with a string of lockdowns in other cities in the surrounding Yangtze River Delta region, has dealt another heavy blow to the region’s once-thriving live-streaming industry after being hit hard by a regulatory crackdown last year.
Having been stuck at her Shanghai flat for 40 days straight, 27-year-old professional live-streamer Zhu Cancan said she has mostly given up the job for now.
“It’s basically impossible for you to sell products via live-streaming under the Shanghai lockdown. Express delivery systems are not working, so I’m unable to receive products that I planned to sell. Teammates are also being locked in other places,” Zhu said. “Brands are also being hit hard, and many have already cut their budgets.”
Zhu, from Anhui province, is one of hundreds of live-streamers whose life has been turned upside down by the Shanghai lockdown, amid disruptions to logistics flows and weakened demand in a slowing economy. In March, total retail sales of consumer goods in China declined 3.5 per cent year on year, compared with the 34.2 per cent jump last year amid a recovery from the 2020 downturn, according to official government data.
Private express delivery systems, which is how goods purchased online are typically sent, have been severely disrupted by pandemic control measures. Many online merchants now keep their buyers apprised of changing conditions by sending them lists of cities and districts to which they are currently unable to ship products.
