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The View | Dethroning of China’s ‘live-streaming queen’ and ‘lipstick king’ is not doomsday for the sector
- The downfall of the country’s most renowned live-streaming stars has raised questions about the future of the popular sales and marketing format
- However, even before the crackdown, companies had been moving towards creating their own content or tying up with niche live-streamers
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Over the past eight months, the dramatic fall of China’s most popular live-streaming influencers has cast a cloud over one of the country’s most dynamic and burgeoning sectors.
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Once driving a huge portion of China’s live-streaming sales, now-fallen megastars like Viya – whose real name is Huang Wei – and Austin Li Jiaqi helped build live-streaming into an integral part of the country’s retail landscape. With Viya and Li’s channels closed for the foreseeable future, some commentators are doubting the future of live-streaming in China as a sales and marketing format.
However, the previous structure of the live-streaming sector was unsustainable, with a handful of celebrity influencers wielding enormous power that placed brand partners and consumers at a disadvantage. Due to unfavourable cost structures and public relations risks, brands were already investing more in their own live-stream content before the recent crackdown on the megastars – and that trend will only accelerate.
Consumers have embraced the benefits of live-streaming as a format, regardless of who the presenters are. The new fragmented landscape should facilitate more equitable growth of live-streaming, with brands, consumers, presenters and the platforms all reaping benefits.
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Why live streaming is becoming China’s most-profitable form of electronic media
Why live streaming is becoming China’s most-profitable form of electronic media
The crackdown began soon after the record-setting Singles' Day shopping festival at the end of last year, when live-streamers Viya (known as the “live-streaming queen”) and Cherie (whose real name is Zhu Chenhui), who boasted the largest and third-largest followings on Alibaba’s Taobao Live platform respectively, received huge fines for tax evasion. Overnight, their multibillion-dollar live-streaming empires ceased to operate.
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