Analyse Asia #139: Livestreaming in China with Eva Xiao
The live-streaming ecosystem & phenomenon in China & the misconceptions of western media on their reporting.
Podcast Synopsis: Eva Xiao from Tech In Asia joined us in a discussion on the live-streaming ecosystem within China and debunked the major misconceptions by western media on the phenomenon itself. We dived deep to the major live-streaming apps, the business models for the live-streaming platforms, celebrities and online users and how digital gifting has become the dominant mode of monetization that differed from the rest of the world. We examined the content moderation by Chinese government and the platforms, the ecosystem for brands from overseas to market their products in China and the trends in the next 2–3 years.
Here are the three interesting points which we discussed during this episode:
- We discussed how the live-streaming apps in China differed from their western counterparts. The major difference is that digital gifting as a revenue stream has worked out well in China, followed by ecommerce and advertising. One interesting market entry for overseas brands leveraging on live-streaming as a marketing tool in China is the cosmetics industry.
- We also covered how the Chinese government has been heavily regulating the live-streaming platforms, where they introduced legislation that ban live-streamers from eating bananas or acts that insinuate soft core pornography.
- Last but not least, we discussed in detail the top live-streaming apps in China: Inke, Huajiao, Douyou, their investors and how it is becoming part of the social tools such as Wechat and Taobao live. The Baidu-Alibaba-Tencent axis are also active in this space and competing with the major apps in this space either through strategic investment or making their own version of the app.
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