seizing the beachhead of “live streaming city”: what will these cities “risk” in the future?
2024-09-05
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building a "live streaming city" is becoming the ambition of many cities.
recently, the shanghai municipal commission of commerce and other departments jointly issued the "shanghai three-year action plan to promote the high-quality development of the live streaming economy (2024-2026)" (hereinafter referred to as the "action plan"). the plan proposes that by 2026, shanghai's live streaming economy development will continue to maintain its international leading position, have a significant enabling effect on the industry, and the industry ecology will be more complete. the scale of live streaming e-commerce will grow steadily, and the various types of live streaming business will be rich and diverse with a scientific structure. the main bodies will continue to gather, forming an efficient and coordinated live streaming economic ecology, establishing and improving high-standard industry norms and regulatory mechanisms, and striving to become a live streaming economy highland with international influence.
it is worth noting that compared with the "action plan" proposed in shanghai three years ago that "by 2023, shanghai's online shopping transaction volume will exceed 200 billion yuan", the new "action plan" directly states that "live e-commerce retail sales will strive to reach 600 billion yuan", which is three times the scale of the former.
"in recent times, the industry has been discussing whether there are still opportunities for live streaming e-commerce. i think shanghai's action plan is a good answer. live streaming e-commerce is still a huge opportunity." zhang yi, ceo and chief analyst of imedia consulting, told reporters.
while local governments are fighting to seize the high ground of the live broadcast economy, the city agglomeration effect of the live broadcast industry has already emerged. for cities, how can they strengthen the connection between "live broadcast" and a city and use live broadcast to drive urban development? for live broadcast practitioners, how can they shuttle between different cities and find soil suitable for their own development?
the leading "live streaming capital"
in the past two years, the competition for the title of "live streaming e-commerce capital" has been fierce. guangzhou, shanghai, and hangzhou have all developed rapidly in the field of live streaming e-commerce. hangzhou has the largest number of live streamers. "in hangzhou, one out of every 244 people is a live streamer." guangzhou is at the forefront of the country in terms of the number of online retail stores, live streaming sessions, and the number of live streamers. shanghai, on the other hand, has a large number of brands that are the main demand side of live streaming. according to the "2020 taobao live streaming new economy report", among the first-tier cities in china, shanghai ranks first in the country in terms of the number of taobao live streaming users watching and the scale of participation of various brands.
"china's industries are clustered. for example, women's clothing in guangdong tends to be 'international' in style, women's clothing in jiangsu, zhejiang and shanghai tends to be hangzhou-style, and shanghai is a gathering place for international brands. different regions have their own characteristics, and now they are all doing e-commerce business." baozun luokxun coo su quan told reporters that judging from the local characteristics of industrial clusters, the development of live streaming e-commerce in various places is also different.
"hangzhou is the birthplace of taobao live streaming, and its overall infrastructure for live streaming is the best. shanghai's brand resources, including the infrastructure accumulated in the entire cutting-edge content creativity, are relatively advanced." su quan introduced that in her opinion, hangzhou has the most abundant anchor resources and operational talent resources. it is the first live streaming city to develop, and it has also spilled over talents to surrounding areas. from the perspective of overall sales volume, it is relatively easier for baozun luo kexun to make sales in hangzhou. while baozun luo kexun serves many brands, especially international brands, the live streaming team in shanghai can be closer to the brands, making it easier to jointly operate and co-create with the brands. at the same time, as the "fashion capital", shanghai has a deeper accumulation of buyer resources and marketing talents, and can provide more talents in brand marketing. at present, baozun e-commerce has live streaming bases in shanghai and hangzhou.
live streaming organizations have many considerations when choosing a city to establish a live streaming center. cui dongsheng, vice president of jiaogepengyou holdings, told the first financial reporter that when choosing a city for a live streaming center, jiaogepengyou considered the support and stability of the policy environment, the maturity of the business atmosphere and market demand, the richness and attractiveness of talent resources, and the fit between the city's key industry directions and innovation capabilities and the company's strategy and business. the efficiency improvement brought by industrial agglomeration is also very critical.
these differences will ultimately be directly related to the operating costs and development strategies of live broadcast organizations. baozun e-commerce has a 12,000 square meter live broadcast base in hangzhou and a base of more than 3,000 square meters in shanghai. the cost differences in manpower, administrative expenses, etc. in hangzhou and shanghai are recorded in the accounts. when baozun formed the same live broadcast team, the cost in shanghai was almost 1.5 to 2 times that of hangzhou. if a brand is new to douyin e-commerce and hopes to take small steps and reduce the risk of initial cost investment, su quan will suggest that the brand put the live broadcast room in hangzhou in the first year to reduce the cost of the test period. later, it can be evaluated whether it needs to be adjusted to shanghai based on the development stage and the required capabilities and resources.
"if brands want to obtain full-link services from marketing to sales from live broadcast rooms that match international cutting-edge creativity and tonality standards, shanghai is our best choice. there are relatively many creative and visual talents in shanghai." su quan introduced that in shanghai, baozun e-commerce has invested in and established a number of higher-standard live broadcast rooms. because shanghai has many international luxury brands and customers, it provides "movie-level" live broadcasts that focus on product promotion rather than shopping guides during some brand nodes or major events.
there are also douyin e-commerce live broadcasts in guangzhou and kuaishou live broadcasts in the three northeastern provinces. zhuang shuai, an expert in the retail e-commerce industry and founder of bailian consulting, told reporters that with the support of the platform, the accumulation of live broadcast talents in the city, and the introduction of local government policies to support live broadcasts, as well as the support of corresponding land resources and hardware facilities, more live broadcast city clusters are growing. su quan also observed that in addition to hangzhou, shanghai, guangzhou and shenzhen, more new first-tier cities with sufficient college students and industrial layout are welcoming the development opportunities of the live broadcast economy, such as wuhan and chengdu.
as more cities increase their investment in the live broadcast economy, the industry expects each city to develop its own advantages rather than homogeneous competition. "when looking at the development of industrial planning in each city, we consider more about how to play to our strengths." su quan said that as more new consumption trends emerge, more innovative content and cutting-edge live broadcast technology may become opportunities for some cities to develop live broadcasts and create new highlights.
finding “new volume”
in the action plan, shanghai proposed a series of specific goals to promote the high-quality development of the live broadcast economy from 2024 to 2026, including supporting the large-scale development of e-commerce mcn institutions, strengthening the enabling and driving role of branded goods, local tourism, catering and life services, supporting the live broadcast economy to go global, and encouraging the development of cross-border e-commerce live broadcast business. under the top-level design of the "live broadcast city", the opportunities of local life live broadcast and live broadcast "going global" and solutions to related problems have also attracted attention from the industry.
local life live broadcast and e-commerce live broadcast are completely different tracks. it focuses more on the closed-loop experience of online live broadcast display, online ordering and offline consumption. for live broadcast organizations, there is a challenge of "track switching". however, as consumption trends gradually move towards online and offline integration, traditional live broadcast e-commerce enters the stock competition, and local life live broadcast has also become a market that cannot be ignored.
however, one challenge is that local life live broadcasts need to rely on a large number of store explorers. compared with traditional live broadcasts, store explorers are more random, and local stores’ sales and customer base lack the support of big data, which tests the training of talents and the operating experience of institutions. in the "ambition" of using live broadcasts to drive local consumption, how to establish a more complete local life talent and data system is also a test for each city.
"shanghai's live broadcast economy development plan has a very important focus, and live broadcast going overseas is ushering in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." zhang yi said that he is optimistic about the momentum of the live broadcast economy going global. with the development of a, technologies such as digital humans, ai customer service, and ai system processing are all reducing obstacles for live broadcast going overseas. at the same time, more and more cities are encouraging cross-border sellers to expand overseas markets. at present, markets such as southeast asia, the middle east, and latin america are all experiencing an increase in demand for live broadcasting, and africa is also a potential market worthy of attention.
however, "going overseas" is not an easy road. cui dongsheng said that jiaogepengyou regards "going overseas" as an important layout, and its overseas business has expanded to key markets such as the americas, europe, the united kingdom, and southeast asia. in the process of "going overseas", companies need to comprehensively consider multiple dimensions such as market, technology, content, talent, and compliance in order to be able to "land" successfully.
zhuang shuai said that the success of live broadcasting going global actually requires the joint efforts of all parties. according to his observation, the current development of the live broadcasting industry in southeast asia is relatively smooth, mainly due to the close relationship between southeast asian culture and chinese culture and the policy support of the belt and road initiative. in different countries and regions, live broadcasting going global will encounter various competitive adjustments. merchants, platforms, local governments, etc. should participate in the formulation of relevant policies and industry standards to help china's live broadcasting going global develop in a compliant manner. at the same time, the government's incentive policies, taxation, talent subsidies, etc. for live broadcasting going global can also accelerate the development of live broadcasting going global.
in the action plan, shanghai also made it clear that it would support financial institutions to provide high-quality financial services, develop products and services that meet the operating characteristics and development needs of live broadcast economic entities, and increase loan issuance. it also encourages all types of venture capital to support the development of the live broadcast economy. zhang yi said that in the process of live broadcast e-commerce "going overseas", more financial service support is also worthy of attention.
"cross-border e-commerce is different from the unified domestic market. after many goods are shipped out, the money has to be collected back so that companies or anchors can make money." zhang yi said that he is concerned about the difficulties of payment and collection in cross-border "going overseas", how to explore and establish more complete financial services, and in terms of finance, develop professional mechanisms for emerging industries such as live broadcast "going overseas", support the innovation of live broadcast economic formats and models. the industry still expects "live broadcast cities" to create more possibilities.
(this article comes from china business network)
