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    Everybody Wants To Be The Next Li Jiaqi

    China forges ahead in the creation of a sophisticated, regulated livestreaming sector that now tops the wish list of young Chinese jobseekers.
    China forges ahead in the creation of a sophisticated, regulated livestreaming sector that now tops the wish list of young Chinese jobseekers. Photo: Li Jiaqi's Weibo
    Gemma A. WilliamsAuthor
      Published   in News

    What happened

    Alibaba Group’s livestreaming arm, Taobao Live, has announced a number of reforms to its operations at a ceremony in Hangzhou, China. The head of Taobao Live, Xuan De, stated that all livestreamers will now have access to at least 100 million products from Tmall. The company's influencer marketing charging model will be reformed as well, reducing the settlement time frame by 15 days to speed up capital and cash flow. Xuan also revealed four goals for 2021: to cultivate 2,000 live broadcast rooms and 200 ecological partners with sales exceeding 100 million yuan, one million paid professional livestreamers, and 1,000 new brands.

    The Jing Take

    For years, China has been forging ahead with the creation of a sophisticated live-streaming ecosystem and since its launch in 2016, Taobao Live has been a vital component of the sector. During lockdown, the medium exploded in popularity and since then China has been stepping up its control over the industry. This week, it released further regulations that require platforms to set up a system that internally ranks users by various metrics and establish risk management systems to guard against illegal marketing tactics.

    In addition to Taobao Live's new upgrades, this latest rule-changes will make the practice more viable for SMEs and thereby ensure its credibility and longevity. Good news, too, for China’s young jobseekers who, according to a report by Bilibili and CBNData, currently cite e-commerce live-streamer and product reviewer among their most popular career choices. After all, who wouldn’t dream of being the next Li Jiaqi or Viya?

    The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

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