The big winners of this year’s Singles’ Day in China were its livestreamers. But can they also help luxury brands?
What Happened: Alibaba’s Singles’ Day has officially been launched, and the big winners are Viya and Li Jiaqi (aka Austin Li), two of China’s most famous livestreamers. During their October 20 livestream session, the power duo sold $3.1 billion (20 billion yuan) in GMV, nearly 10 percent of the entire 2020 Singles’ Day event.
Bloomberg points towards preliminary data compiled by e-commerce data specialist Taosj.com, which shows that Li Jiaqi pre-sold $1.9 billion (12 Billion yuan) in products ranging from Shiseido creams to Apple AirPods. No other livestreamer has achieved Li’s record-breaking sales during a livestreaming session in Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace, according to Taosj.com data.
Viya also registered a smashing success, selling about 1.2 billion (8 Billion yuan) in goods during a 14 hours livestream. Meanwhile, another livestreamer named Cherie reached sales of $187 million (1.2 Billion yuan), according to taosj.com.
Alibaba’s pre-sale shopping extravaganza wasn’t free of technical issues, though. The South China Morning Post reports that Taobao Marketplace crashed for 20 minutes during the event. Technical issues also impacted Qianniu, a platform where merchants can manage their online stores. As per Taobao, the system breakdown happened because of heavy traffic generated by “overenthusiastic” shoppers. Continue to read the full article here
