‘Trust me, you need this’: how China’s live-streaming KOL stars are changing the face of business
- Increasing numbers of key opinion leaders are fuelling online sales
- Customers demanding more transparency are seeking personalities they can trust before they buy
Tucked away in the basement of an unremarkable commercial centre in downtown Guangzhou, a booming southern Chinese city, is an important “factory”. It doesn’t produce shoes or shirts, or anything you might expect; it churns out influential live-streaming celebrities.
Hifan Multi-Channel Network is only a few years old but already is one of the top five multimedia companies in the city. With only 40 members of staff, it has created a stable of about 100 live-streaming celebrities, or key opinion leaders (KOLs).
It is a driving force behind sourcing and producing the next generation of KOLs catering to China’s appetite for live-streaming of “entertainmerce”, a combination of entertainment and e-commerce.
Sales revenue in China’s live-streaming market grew by 180 per cent in 2016 and was worth 21 billion yuan (US$3 billion), according to market research company iResearch. Content ranges from singing and dancing to shared insights and details of the daily lives of these mass-produced KOLs.
Since it exploded onto the online retail scene in 2016, live-stream shopping has opened a new channel to allow internet users to indulge in the instantaneous consumer lifestyle of “I see, I like, I buy”.
