Navigating China's Livestream E-commerce Landscape

This week on Sinica, in a show recorded at Syracuse University on September 30, I chat with my old pal Bryce Whitwam about the remarkable rise of live-streaming e-commerce — and how it's already making its way to the U.S.

4:28 – Why Bryce chose to leave Shanghai and pursue a doctorate in the States

8:08 – How big livestream e-commerce has gotten and its predicted trajectory 

9:37 – E-commerce livestreaming and the pursuit of celebrity 

14:08 – The different types of livestream commerce

17:30 – Xiaohongshu 

20:45 – Why Taobao has lost its dominance 

22:07 – The value-add of an influencer’s pitch 

27:00 – The demographics of Chinese livestream e-commerce consumers 

29:09 – Insights from Bryce’s 25 interviews

36:36 – Buying food on livestream e-commerce and how agribusinesses are getting involved in the trend 

41:21 – Livestream commerce in the United States

44:34 – How livestream e-commerce has changed the retail experience in China 

46:43 – Potential future disruptions in the industry

Recommendations:

Bryce: Jeffree Star on TikTok as an American livestream commerce example and Omar Nok’s “Egypt to Japan Without Flying” TikTok stream 

Kaiser: The album True by Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks 

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