Popular livestreamers boost consumption in China

Livestreaming on e-commerce platforms is boosting consumption and transformation in certain industries in China, as consumers tend to switch to online-purchasing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Ministry of Commerce, more than 10 million sessions of livestreaming were held in China in the first half of the year, with about 400,000 livestreamers participating, and introducing over 20 million commodities.

A list of rankings compiled by newrank.cn and CBN data shows that livestreamers Viya and Li Jiaqi, or Austin Li, on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Taobao, were China's top two livestreamers in July, reaching estimated sales of 1.7 billion yuan ($245.6 million) and 1.27 billion yuan, respectively. Livestreamer Xin Youzhi, dubbed Simba on short video app Kuaishou, ranked at third place with estimated sales of 558.9 million yuan.

Sixteen livestreamers on the list boasted individual estimated sales surpassing 100 million yuan last month, with most of those sales in the beauty and costume categories.