Livestreaming gets smart on knowledge sector

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Dong Yuhui works through an online platform of New Oriental Education and Technology Group in Beijing in June (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Browsing through China’s innumerable e-commerce livestreaming channels, it is not uncommon to hear phrases such as: “Hey guys! Lowest price ever! Three, two, one … buy it now!” to drum up sales.

But sometimes, treading a different path can also strike a chord with a staggering number of Chinese consumers, as is the case of Dong Yuhui, a 29-year-old livestreamer from education training company New Oriental Education and Technology Group.

“No need to hurry. It doesn’t matter if you buy the product or not, but do listen to a story.” That is what he tells consumers, peppered with free knowledge in English related to selling items and injecting fascinating anecdotes about luminaries such as William Shakespeare.

The unique style of combining a talk-show format and English courses with e-commerce livestreaming quickly notched up more than 20 million followers, ranging from celebrities to regular members of the public, dancing to Dong’s tune within just 20 days.

Moreover, the success broke the long-standing landscape of the e-commerce live­streaming sector and stimulated a “spillover” effect.

A livestreaming project promoting local culture, handicrafts and products draws attention from an audience in Nanchong, Sichuan province, in June 2022 (LI TAO / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Industry insiders said that several livestreaming platforms already planned a big foray into “content and knowledge-based” livestreaming, just as Dong does, to attract consumers, rather than simply using pretty faces to sell products online.

While the average daily turnover of the top 50 livestreamers during 2022’s June 18 shopping gala was 18 million yuan (£2.3 million), Oriental Selection, the livestreaming arm of New Oriental for which Dong works, has raked in about 70 million yuan (£8.7 million) at its peak on one day.

Qin Jiayu, a 34-year-old programmer from Shenzhen, Guangdong province, bought three bags of rice on Dong’s livestream, which he said was a “comfortable and worthy” buying experience.

“I feel that I am paying for courses, for the English expressions and know-how I learned from the live­streaming sessions. The rice I bought is just like a giveaway,” he said.

Currently, Oriental Selection mainly sells books and agricultural products including corn, cherries and edible fungus.

“The goal of e-commerce live­streaming is to help drive rural revitalisation, make high-quality agricultural products available to consumers and also increase farmers’ incomes,” New Oriental founder Yu Minhong said.

“We can also leverage our training and online technology advantages to diversify into agricultural training online, which can help farmers broaden their knowledge and improve their skills,” he added.

According to market consultancy iiMedia research, the total revenue of China’s e-commerce livestreaming sector is expected to hit 2.14 trillion yuan (£267 billion) in 2025.

However, the market consultancy also pointed out that the industry is facing increasing challenges such as “lack of high-quality livestreamers, unique content and high-quality products”.

Will a new business model like New Oriental’s last long? As the e-commerce livestreaming sector tends to focus more on content and knowledge, industry experts have begun to question this.

“After all, it is an education company and its resources and experience in livestreaming are still limited. It mainly sells agricultural products, but it is very difficult to control the quality of agricultural products. Besides, it also faces challenges such as a high loss rate due to logistics,” said Chen Liteng, an analyst at the Internet Economy Institute, a consultancy.

For companies such as New Oriental to maintain such momentum, it is a must for the company to build a supply chain itself, which is of significance to its long-term quality control and growth, he said.