Sam Blumenthal

The core of the Pinduoduo experience is team purchase, where buyers form a group in order to receive discounts from suppliers. The user experience, as laid out in the graphic below, is as follows: (1) for each item, merchants decide two prices – one for individual purchase and one for team purchase. If the user opts for a team purchase, he or she... See more

The desire for good advice drives Chinese consumers to turn to experts. In China, “even farmers have become influencers,” Weinswig said. “People will buy their groceries from a farmer on a livestream.”

Native vs. Skeuomorphic innovation, lessons from Gaming, and the future of online commerce

“From the consumer side of things, the appetite for that live content increased right at the same time” as when retailers were attempting to find interactive methods to put products in front of consumers, said Matt Moorut, senior principal analyst at Gartner. “It sort of makes a perfect storm where, from both sides of the equation, there’s more of... See more

Earlier this year, Wei, known as Viya, used Taobao to sell a commercial rocket for 40 million yuan, or $5.6 million. The hashtag #WeiYaSellsARocket went viral on the Chinese social platform Weibo after the incredible feat.

“That was the moment we realized that livestreaming was going to change everything,” Yuan said. “We were literally dealing with hundreds of customers, just three of us, addressing each customer’s sizing concern and questions.”