Should Luxury Brands Be Excited About China’s Live-Streaming Frenzy?

(jingdaily.com) - The live-streaming industry’s explosion in China has shown the world just how keen Chinese consumers are about broadcasting their daily life on social media. Official statistics from the China Internet Information Center indicate that the number of live-streaming viewers had reached 325 million by the end of June 2016 and the majority of them are young—facts that have significant implications for luxury brands in China targeting the country’s emerging wealthy, millennial consumers. While brands have many reasons to be optimistic about this new tool for reaching shoppers, live-streaming’s widespread reach in China means navigating it the smart way isn’t always easy. Huge viewership numbers seemingly point to a promising path for luxury brands to win over more customers. However, exaggerating the number of views is a common practice among China’s various live streaming platforms, as exposed by some well-known online hosts and Chinese media outlets. In 2015, state-run newspaper People’s Daily criticized one live-streaming show on Douyu, a major service provider, for claiming a broadcast exceeded 1.3 billion online viewers, which is almost equivalent to the total population in China. During that same year, a popular live-streaming host said publicly that the platform he worked for constantly faked viewership numbers in order to attract investment.