Sam Blumenthal

Platforms like Taobao, owned by Alibaba, and WeChat function as both hybrids of social media and eCommerce platforms, essentially offering users a plethora of services from microblogging, messaging and online shopping, all in one experience. This interconnected economy of services means that live stream shopping is simply an extension of the... See more

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.

On Listening to the Private Markets, Amazon Aggregators & More

Yet increasingly, brands are elevating unboxing into an altogether new marketing strategy. A growing number have begun selling their products as “mystery boxes,” clearing the way for unboxing videos where customers genuinely don’t know what’s inside — and allowing brands to bundle their products in a way that is ready-made to go viral on YouTube... See more

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