You may have heard of CLO as “Chief Learning Officer” in some forward-thinking organisations. However, at JD, China’s second-largest e-commerce platform, CLO takes on a different meaning: Chief Livestream Officer. Wang Feng, a rockstar, has been appointed as JD’s Chief Livestream Officer. He’s responsible for turning up the entertainment factor on JD’s livestreams. During this year’s 618 Grand Promotion, JD invited over 300 celebrities into its livestreaming room and brought rock concerts and musical festivals online through JD Live, its livestreaming platform. JD is committed to merging entertainment, high-quality products and celebrities into its livestream features. Has your brand tried livestream in China yet?

Last year, we told tourism operators and destinations to get ready for a wave of Chinese tourists who wanted ‘soft adventure tourism’ experiences. Soft adventure tourism refers to experiences that are exotic but come with little risk and a relatively high degree of comfort. ‘Soft adventure tourism includes horseback riding through the Mountains of Turkey, floating in the Dead Sea, or going for a camel ride in Morocco. Although international tourism is heavily restricted this year, the desire for soft adventure tourism hasn’t abated. New hotel concepts, like this desert hotel in Ningxia, are opening up. You may have already seen a steady stream of domestic tourists heading to Hainan Island to learn surfing.

China’s ‘SHE ERA’ (ta shidai 她时代) dramas are all the rage. The latest TV drama hit in this genre is “Nothing But Thirty”. It is flooding Weibo discussions, with over 20 billion views on its hashtag page. In a society where women are often expected to be married by their late twenties, a show like this, which tackles women’s present-day struggles, both in their personal and professional lives, has resonated with many. Why should you as a brands pay attention to this trend? You can use hot topics related to the episodes in their posts, relate products to instances on the show, or show that the brand is a big fan of such a show to ride the wave of its popularity.

More and more Chinese companies are jumping on this trend of Auto-Tuned remix videos, meaning foreign brands that want to keep up should pay attention and learn. One example is Mi Tech (from Xiaomi). The company has been actively working with remix video creators to create strong buzz for the brand. Most recently, Jun Lei, founder and chairman of Mi Tech, created a Bilibili account and posted his first remixed video. It resulted in around 4 million views and 627k followers. Similarly, Alibaba created Auto-Tuned remix videos during the outbreak, based on Jack Ma’s singing performance, receiving 2.5 million views. Brands should keep in mind that communication is often quite humorous and down-to earth on Bilibili, which is why this platform lends itself well for such content.

According to economists at major financial firms, China’s economy has mostly ridden out the COVID-19 blow and is entering a V-shaped rebound trajectory. These economists expect demand for goods and services to pick up towards the end of the year. If all goes well, China will be one of the few major economies to grow this year.

We’ve previously stressed that Livestream E-commerce isn’t just for apparel, skincare and snack foods. Luxury brands can partake in livestream e-commerce too. Indeed, according to Jing Daily and Content Commerce Inside, luxury brands and live streaming do not have to be mutually exclusive. The report says that luxury brands must develop live streaming strategies and partnerships to balance competing demands of exclusivity and exposure. Check out the full report here!

100 million new users have begun using China’s e-commerce platforms in the last twelve months. This is important for e-commerce’s continued development. Overall China’s online retail sales reached 5.15 trillion yuan (about 736.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2020, up 7.3 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Subscribe to AgencyChina’s newsletter to get the latest news on China’s dynamic e-commerce market.

KOLs interviewing other KOLs is all the rage now in China. While in the West it is very common to see big YouTubers collaborating with each other in order to grow their audiences, that tactic hasn’t been as prevalent in China, but it looks like that’s changing. In China the trend started when a fashion and beauty KOL (深夜发媸), began a content series where she visited influencers’ or celebrities’ houses, including top live streamer Li Jiaqi (李佳琦), stylist Fil小白, mega beauty KOL 阿沁, and fashion KOL Becky Li. Fans get to see a new, intimate side of these KOLs or celebrities through this new type of collaborative videos. The KOLs aren’t simply collaborating, they are going into each other’s homes and workspaces and showing the audience a more intimate, unscripted version of themselves.