Chinese livestreamers can rake in billions of dollars in hours. How

BEIJING — Even as China’s newly rich internet celebrities keep smashing livestreaming sales records, businesses are finding other strategies that might work better for their brands.

Livestreaming is here to stay, many analysts say, but relying on a system of internet personalities and views will no longer be enough.

The real-time online selling phenomenon — also called “live commerce” or “livestreaming e-commerce” — took off in China after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year, and is growing in other countries.

The difference from last year is that it’s not as easy for livestreamers to get consumer sales volume, said Xin Youzhi, a top livestreamer with 95.6 million followers on video app Kuaishou. That’s a challenge for the industry going forward, since he said it has grown to roughly 2 trillion yuan ($312.5 billion) in market size by relying more on sales volume than focusing on product quality.

Xin now also runs his own company, Xinxuan Group, which has a staff of 1,400 people to screen goods, develop products and train professional livestreamers. Xin said he hopes one day the company can have 1,000 of its own product designers.

The livestreaming sales trend in China, even before the pandemic, has been dominated by internet celebrities like 29-year-old Austin Li. He rose to fame by selling lipstick, and set a record last month by selling the equivalent of $1.8 billion during a single 12.5-hour livestreaming session on Alibaba‘s Taobao in the run-up to the Singles Day shopping event on Nov. 11.

Fellow livestreamer Viya notched transaction volume of about $1.3 billion in roughly 14.5 hours during the same promotional event, according to industry research firm Hongrendianji. Skin care products and makeup were among the most popular products sold, the firm said.