Livestreaming adds excitement, profitability to e-commerce

A host sells hot dry noodles, a popular dish in Wuhan, Hubei province, and other food products on a livestream broadcast from the 29th China Food Expo on Dec 3. According to a Nielsen report, market size of livestreamed e-commerce is expected to reach 961 billion yuan in 2020, which will account for 10 percent of e-commerce in China. Justin Sargent, president of Nielsen China, said: "Online channels keep evolving, driven by a massive customer base and increasing competition, and this has resulted in a shift from consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer, to vertical e-commerce, cross-border e-commerce, social e-commerce, online-to-offline superstores and livestreamed e-commerce. In terms of city demographic, Nielsen's survey found that livestreamed e-commerce was more popular in lower-tier cities, which accounted for 55 percent, as compared to first-and second-tier cities, which accounted for 45 percent. "Livestreamed e-commerce also plays an important role in combating poverty in some rural areas, and local governments have stepped up efforts promoting the industry with China close to the goal of ending absolute poverty by the end of this year," said Zhou Minliang, a senior researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.