Thread by @lillianmli

1) Let's talk about how to think about applying a successful Chinese tech trend to your tech ecosystem.

Let's deconstruct the elements of what made livestreaming take off in China, and what is easily replicable and what isn't

2) So I've discussed before that I view livestreaming as both an entertainment product as well as a distribution channel. So when people are asking whether livestreaming can take off, they are really asking two questions about monetisation.

3) - Will people tip livestreamers?
- Will people buy things from a livestream?

The answer to both these questions involves understanding the technological, institutional and cultural underpinnings of Chinese tech. Yeah, bummer we gotta know all that.

4) From a technological perspective, Chinese tech has leapfrogged to digital payments. This is due to the lack of good credit institutions in the past.

What was once a hindrance will become a boon and vice versa in technology progress.

https://twitter.com/lillianmli/status/1351589077179539462

5) The fact that everyone in China carries two digital wallets (Alipay and Tenpay) means that a lot of digital products have low friction and embedded checkout process. You can buy something with three clicks in Taobao while still watching the livestream.

6) So to answer the two questions partly. People now *can* pay for live stream products in an easy way. Whenever there's friction between awareness, desire and checkout there's drop off rates for buyers. The more you can reduce this the more the whole process works.

7) So as an entrepreneur, this is one of the big enablers I'd be looking for if I'm making a livestreaming product. Do I exist in an ecosystem where digital payment exists can be embedded into checkout? Or if it doesn't exist in an easy way, should I be making the shovels?

8) But will people tip for livestream in your region? There are cultural reasons for why the Chinese population are happy to tip, there's a strong sense of fandom support (similar to Japan and Korea in some sense. a la BTS army), educational content is worth paying for

9) There are also deeply universal aspects of tipping:
- Showing off in front of the other patrons (wonderful insight from @Aella_Girl on US cam girl techniques)
- The digitalisation of institutions where men pay for interaction with women
knowingless.com/2018/11/19/max…

10) Figure out where your local culture has these elements, would look for the presence of a population that already has this trained behaviour (aka users of Twitch or camgirls).

11) Would people buy from live-streaming?

Since experiential buying modes has existed since QVC, livestreaming is not a drastic leap. But the leap you're asking the user to make is a trust leap. Both from a fulfilment perspective and also from a product quality perspective

12) That trust leap can be bridged by a few factors. Trust from an existing service provided (hence why Taobao livestreaming does so well, people already know BABA does logistics well). Or trust in an existing figure aka the livestreamer

13) Having a set of competent livestreamer was key for livestreaming e-commerce to take off in the days. Interesting, while many Chinese celebrities tried their hand at selling on livestreaming, thinking this was a way to monetise their traffic. They all didn't hold longterm sway

14) The champions in Chinese livestreaming are Viya and Austin Lee, two successful salespeople with established track-record before they went online.

So if I were a building livestreaming business, I'd be using my area's top salesperson rather than the local insta influencer.

15) But that still takes training. Livestreaming is a new delivery medium and it's not just a change of presenter, but a change of the sell content. Scripts help but the presenter needs to be authentic and reactive to the audience's feedback all the while selling. That's hard

16) There are camps set up to literally train livestreamers by MCN and Viya was incubated by Taobao itself in their first batch. This feeder ecosystem is a crucial part of allows the livestreaming trend to take off

https://twitter.com/lillianmli/status/1345762098861592576

17) Lastly it needs to be said, if people weren't buying things online because of delivery and return issues, or trust with payment, having livestreaming isn't going to change all of that overnight. Also more on livestreaming
lillianli.substack.com/p/livestreamin…

18) Livestream e-commerce shortens the awareness to desire to purchase cycle, it doesn't magically make people believe in e-commerce. Everything needs to work as a foundational piece before livestreaming can elevate it.

19) So will livestreaming take off in your region of the world? Depends right? What enablers are you working with and what enablers need to be built out?

Copying without context rarely works now in late-stage consumer internet.

I'll be writing threads like this for the rest of Jan, follow if you want these to spam your TL