AI hosts fuel China's livestream shopping boom

The total scale of the country's livestreaming e-commerce industry reached 433.8 billion yuan (about 65.69 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019 and is expected to double by the end of 2020, a report by global accounting firm KPMG and AliResearch showed.

Meanwhile, AI-powered virtual hosts are foraying into the industry as they offer a cost-efficient and feasible alternative to hiring real people, according to industry insiders.

In livestreaming e-commerce, however, AI hosts are still new players, according to experts from e-commerce platform Alibaba.

Livestreaming e-commerce users in China came in at around 309 million as of June, roughly one-third of the total number of internet users in the country, according to a report released by China Internet Network Information Center in September.

"After using the AI broadcaster, we noticed record views every day," said Xiang Jing, who is in charge of Philips outlet on the Tmall shopping platform, adding that nearly 80,000 people watched the livestream during the peak hours.

China's AI smart application and software market reached 2.89 billion U.S. dollars last year, an IDC report showed.