E-commerce – China is hiring foreign influencers
Seduced by the success of online commerce, Chinese companies en masse recruit foreigners to extol the merits of their products all over the world.
Livestream shopping is estimated to be worth nearly $ 70 billion in China
Imaginechina via AFP
Late at night, Lalo Lopez goes to a small studio in Shanghai for a live broadcast: his mission is to introduce Spanish speakers around the world to Chinese products, from cycling shorts to vacuuming.
The 33-year-old Spaniard, who describes himself as an artist, DJ and YouTuber, is among a growing number of foreigners hired by agencies to spread the local craze for selling products live online beyond borders of China.
Livestream shopping is estimated to be worth nearly $ 70 billion in China, attracting influencers who test products by streaming themselves on social media.
70 billion dollars
Encouraged by the success of this sales channel, Chinese companies are recruiting foreigners to promote the benefits of their products all over the world.
Arriving in China nine years ago, Lalo Lopez was contacted by Beijing-based marketing firm Linkone Interactive, which had seen videos posted by him on YouTube and Instagram.
“When I speak, I look at the product through my culture, through my experience,” said Lopez, whose live broadcasts attract up to 15,000 people.
He thus responds in real time to spectators’ questions, while adding touches of humor to his presentations.
The influencer thus appears in a pink bathrobe slipped over his clothes during the demonstration of a hand vacuum cleaner, which he tests at one point on his own hair.
“It’s easier for me” to speak to a Spanish-speaking audience “because of the cultural background we share,” argues Mr. Lopez, who earns up to 1,500 yuan ($ 226) per session.
Linkone Interactive has been training foreign animators for nearly two years, according to CEO Zhang Zhiguo.
The group already has around fifty influencers – more than half of whom are based in China – who target markets such as the United States, France and Spain.
Dazzling growth
Live broadcasting is in line with online commerce.
Chinese state media have presented this sales channel as a way to reduce poverty in rural areas where farmers can offer products like tea online.
As a sign of success, companies present on the Taobao e-commerce platform achieved sales of more than 100 million yuan ($ 14.9 million) at a shopping festival in June.
And expectations are huge for the online sales that will take place on November 11, “Singles Day”.
The industry has grown dramatically since Taobao and JD.com launched live streaming platforms in 2016.
The activity could earn more than 1,000 billion yuan ($ 150 billion) in 2020, according to a report by KPMG and AliResearch, an arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Aimed at France
Last year, a live sales show “drew only a few hundred viewers,” Zhang Zhiguo told AFP. But now, “it’s normal to have several thousand views”.
Keane Wang, planning director of the Chinese group Neusoft Cloud Technology, plans to launch a live broadcast base in France and recruit 300 to 500 foreign presenters over the next three years.
“After the success of the livestreaming on the Douyin video platform and on Taobao, Chinese companies are ready to try their luck and devote resources to it,” he said.
Still marginal in countries like France, livestream shopping has gained ground in other markets like Russia, explained Alice Roche, who hosts programs in French and English from Shanghai, selling products ranging from massagers to massagers. cosmetics.
“Livestreaming is a new way of consuming … in a few years, it will be the main way of choosing products for us,” she says.
Posted: 11/08/2020, 4:09 p.m.
Original Source