Goodbye Austin Li era: China enters livestream without influencer phase

China’s beauty livestreaming machine is undergoing its most consequential reset since its explosive rise in the late 2010s. For years, a handful of celebrity hosts led by figures like Li Jiaqi (Austin Li), Crazy Little Yang Brother, and Canton Couple, dictated the rhythm of online sales, commanding vast audiences and delivering blockbuster revenues for brands willing to pay the price. That era is now shifting. In the first quarter of 2026, 85% of top beauty brands on Douyin reduced their reliance on influencer-led livestreaming, with some cutting exposure by nearly 20 percentage points. At the same time, only 16 of the top 20 creators surpassed 100 million RMB ($13.8 million) in GMV, down from a full roster a year earlier. This is a symbolic contraction for a model once defined by scale. Across Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote) and Taobao Live, a similar pattern is emerging. Brands are pulling back from high-cost influencer partnerships and redirecting investment toward self-operated livestreaming, private traffic pools, and owned content ecosystems. The high cost of rented audiences At the peak of anchors' effectiveness, China’s livestream economy offered unparalleled reach. A single session could generate millions in sales within hours, turning hosts into kingmakers and beauty into one of the most competitive categories in e-commerce. But that reach came at a cost, which increasingly strained brand economics. “This is structural, not cyclical,” says Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies. “The ‘super anchor’ model was always expensive for brands because commissions were high and creators with high followings had all the leverage. Brands were essentially renting someone else’s audience at a very high price with no lasting relationship to show for it.” Commissions often ranged from 30% to 50%, layered on top of fixed slotting fees, aggressive discounting requirements, and guaranteed sales targets. In many cases, brands traded profitability for visibility, a strategy that made sense during the industry’s early growth phase but has become harder to justify in a more mature market. Moqian Sun, founder of marketing and consulting firm The Harvest, tells Jing Daily. “This shift away from ‘super anchor’ isn’t just a trend, it marks a structural end to an era,” she says. “Top-tier streamers leveraged massive traffic to gain overwhelming bargaining power, squeezing brand margins to the point where many brands found themselves selling more but earning less.” The imbalance has been further exposed by regulatory tightening and rising traffic costs, both of which have eroded the advantages that once justified the model. Platforms rewrite the rules If cost pressures pushed brands to reconsider influencer reliance, platform evolution has made alternatives viable. “What has changed is that the platforms themselves have made a better model available,” Cooke says. “Douyin and Xiaohongshu have built infrastructure that allows brands to reach highly targeted audiences through smaller, more specialized livestreamers with dedicated followings, at a fraction of the cost.” Algorithmic distribution has become more decentralized, favoring relevance over scale. Instead of relying on a single celebrity host, brands can now tap into a network of mid-tier and niche creators: each with more engaged, category-specific audiences. At the same time, platforms are actively incentivizing brand-owned livestreaming. Traffic allocation, advertising tools, and in-app commerce features are increasingly designed to support merchants running their own channels. Among domestic players, Kans (韩束) offers one of the clearest signals of how quickly the model is changing. In Q1 2026, more than 72% of the brand’s GMV on Douyin came from its own self-operated livestreaming channels, while influencer-driven sales dropped to just over 5%. The result is a redistribution of power. Where super anchors once monopolized attention, visibility is now fragmented across a broader ecosystem. Building the in-house machine For brands, the logical next step has been to internalize capabilities that were once outsourced. “Brand-owned channels will always be more profitable once you get over the hurdle of the initial investment,” Cooke says. That hurdle is not insignificant. Running a self-operated livestream requires a combination of skills, from content production and data analytics to supply chain management and customer service, that many beauty companies are still developing. “Data analytics is the foundation because you cannot run a self-operated channel without understanding your audience in real time,” Cooke says. “What converts, at what price point, and on which platform.” But data alone is not enough. Content is now central to performance. “Content creation is the core capability,” Sun says. “Brands need to move beyond simple ‘low-price selling’ and shift toward a mix of brand experience, expert education, and scenario-based storytelling.” Dior Beauty, for instance, has been among the earliest luxury adopters of brand-operated livestreaming on Douyin. Rather than replicating the high-pressure, discount-driven format of traditional influencer sessions, Dior has focused on controlled, content-led broadcasts that align with its broader brand image. This evolution reflects a broader repositioning of livestreaming itself. Once primarily a transactional channel, it is increasingly functioning as a hybrid of media, retail, and customer relationship management. Brands are building what industry insiders describe as a “closed loop”: content drives traffic, livestreams convert sales, and post-purchase engagement feeds back into product development and marketing strategy. The pricing reset One of the most difficult aspects of this transition is restoring pricing discipline. For years, super anchors conditioned consumers to expect deep discounts during livestream events. That expectation has proven difficult to unwind. “Brands that ran through super anchors got addicted to deep discounting as a conversion mechanism,” Cooke says. “Breaking that habit and training consumers to buy at full price through your own channel is genuinely difficult and takes time.” Sun identifies pricing as a critical strategic lever. “Striking the right balance between livestream pricing and offline retail pricing is essential,” she says. “It shapes brand positioning and determines whether the business can achieve healthy, sustainable profitability over the long term.” The stakes are high. Price inconsistency not only erodes margins but also risks undermining brand equity, particularly for premium and luxury beauty labels seeking to maintain exclusivity. Profitability versus scale In the near term, influencer-led livestreaming still offers advantages in speed and reach. But over time, analysts expect brand-owned models to close the gap and potentially surpass them. “In the long run, as brands’ internal teams become more experienced and operations more standardized, the gap in profitability will gradually narrow,” Sun says. The economics are straightforward. Without influencer commissions, brands retain a larger share of revenue. More importantly, they gain control over customer data, a critical asset in an increasingly competitive market. This control enables more efficient targeting, higher repurchase rates, and stronger lifetime value, all of which contribute to long-term profitability. Supply chain integration is also becoming a differentiator. Real-time demand signals from livestreams can inform production planning, reducing excess inventory and improving operational efficiency. Influencers’ role evolves Despite the decline of super anchors, influencers are not disappearing. Their role is simply evolving. “Influencers do not disappear, they just get repositioned,” Cooke says. “The new role is focused on discovery and trust, not necessarily conversion.” In this new framework, influencers operate at the top of the funnel, introducing brands to relevant audiences and shaping perception. Conversion, meanwhile, shifts to brand-controlled environments. Sun breaks this down into two categories. “Influencers can broadly be divided into traffic amplifiers and vertical specialists,” she says. “Traffic amplifiers drive attention during key campaigns, while vertical specialists build trust within specific niches.” This division reflects a more nuanced understanding of influence: One that prioritizes credibility and community over sheer follower count. For beauty brands, particularly in categories like skincare where expertise matters, this shift is significant. It opens the door to collaborations with dermatologists, aestheticians, and other specialists who can offer deeper, more credible engagement. A maturing ecosystem The decline of the super anchor model does not signal the end of livestream commerce in China. Rather, it marks its transition into a more mature phase. What was once a high-growth, traffic-driven industry is becoming more structured, more regulated, and more strategically complex. The focus is shifting from short-term sales spikes to long-term brand building. The implications extend beyond China. As livestream commerce expands globally, the lessons from this transition are likely to resonate in other markets.

Goodbye Austin Li era: China enters livestream without influencer phase

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Goodbye Austin Li era: China enters livestream without influencer phase

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag