Xiamen releases new measures to boost livestream e-commerce business

The coastal city of Xiamen in East China's Fujian province rolled out a two-year action plan to further boost the high-quality development of its livestream e-commerce business, according to a news conference Aug 7.

Xiamen commerce authority announced at the news conference that a livestream e-commerce festival will be held in the city from Aug 8 to Oct 8, with the aim of developing the city's livestreaming e-commerce platform and boosting domestic consumption.

According to statistics, the city witnessed a boom in e-commerce and livestreaming in the first seven months of 2020, with online retail sales rising 23.4 percent year-on-year to nearly 90 billion yuan ($12.96 billion).

Xiamen was listed as a national e-commerce demonstration city in 2011, which laid a solid foundation for the city's e-commerce industry, and offered strong support for the innovative development of the city's new business types such as livestream e-commerce, according to Hong Benzhu, deputy director of the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

"Xiamen has constructed 17 bases for livestream e-commerce," Hong said.

He noted that Xiamen held more than 142,000 livestreaming activities from January to June, which were watched by more than 420 million viewers on their phones.

Hong said that the new action plan is expected to inject new vitality and impetus into the city's livestream e-commerce business, and help Xiamen to be a national center for e-commerce livestreaming by 2022.

According to the action plan, the government will pay no more than 20 million yuan in incentive bonuses to top livestream e-commerce bases in Xiamen.

The city will also help upgrade traditional business models and accelerate the development of cross-border e-commerce. Industries including catering, accommodation, business services, education and tourism will be encouraged to go online.