E-commerce giant Alibaba grooms rising stars as small pool of top influencers proves risky
- Alibaba is highlighting up-and-coming live streamers, as its reliance on a few super influencers has left it vulnerable to reputational risks
- While Austin Li Jiaqi remains Alibaba’s top influencer, the company has yet to publish any Singles’ Day-related sales data about the star
Li’s presales session on Monday attracted at least 10 million viewers online – the maximum number that can be displayed on Taobao Live, Alibaba’s live-streaming channel. Most products immediately sold out as soon as they became available for purchase.
Some local news outlets reported that Li, who sold over 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) worth of goods in a similar session last year, managed a turnover of 21.5 billion yuan on Monday – nearly 60 per cent of the total revenue of China’s top retailer Suning.com in the first half of 2022 – setting a record for the industry.
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Jack Ma goes head to head with employees for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day
Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Chinese media cited Li’s agency saying that the reported figure is untrue, without elaborating on whether the true number is lower or higher.
Li and now-disgraced influencer Huang Wei, better known as Viya, were once the poster children for Alibaba’s online retail empire. Their ability to draw hundreds of millions of viewers to their live streams and sell billions of goods in just hours helped Alibaba solidify its place as China’s dominant e-commerce player.
“Taobao Live was a bit lifeless when the top two live-streamers Li Jiaqi and Viya were absent,” Zhang Yi, chief executive of research firm iiMeida, said. “Top live-streamers indeed can generate huge traffic for e-commerce platforms.”
But Alibaba’s reliance on a small number of super influencers to boost its sales has also made it vulnerable to reputational risks.