Millions tune in and buy during celebrity livestream

More than 110 million yuan ($15 million) of products were sold by internet celebrity Luo Yonghao on his first-ever livestreaming show late Wednesday, which broke sales records on Douyin — the Chinese version of Tiktok.

Luo, also founder of smartphone brand Smartisan Technology, has sold 910,000 sets of products, including tech gadgets, groceries as well as food and snacks, to 48 million audience members watching the show.

Business income from this livestream could be huge, as a source who asked to stay anonymous told China Daily an hour after the livestream, sales revenue has exceeded 37 million yuan and revenue from doing the livestream in Douyin hit 820,000 yuan.

"Although I am not suitable to sell lipsticks, I believe I can be the top salesman in many categories. Never bought anything from livestreaming platforms? That's because you've never seen us livestream," Luo said.

Among the products sold were Chinese lobster from Xinliangji, vouchers from milk tea maker Nayuki as well as a gel pen from Xiaomi Corp. These were among the top three sellers. Other well-known participating companies include Lenovo Group, P&G and NetEase Inc.

"The main purpose is that such cross-border collisions will bring some new sparks to push the company 'out of the circle', so more people can learn more about Nayuki through the livestream," said Wang Yi, director of public relations at Nayuki.

A third-party calculation showed male consumers accounted for 80.5 percent of the fans watching Luo's livestream, while female users were Nayuki's main consumers, which means the firm successfully stepped 'out of the circle' to gain more customers, Nayuki said in a reply to China Daily.