SE AY ACUST 20 Cashing in on livestreaming Over RM2 trillion worth of sales generated in China last year SHANGHAL Only a few months after beginning her careet-as a livestream sales host in January, ‘Thang Jinyu, 28, a former model and blogger with a masters degree in fashion management, tad clocked hundreds of our of broadcasting time working wit brands such as YSL Beauty. ‘A day in the life of a livestrear- ing host like Zhang can include more than six hours of talking almost non-stop to ‘camera, time spent on hair, makeup and on post broadcast debriefs Despite the demanding sched- ule, is one of millions of young Chinese people, who are facing record youth wunemploy- ment of more than 219 attempt: ing to forge livestream Sales suc cess stores on platforms such as Albaba’s Tmall and Taobao and Bytedance’s Douyin. “ror livestreaming, the thresh- old to enter the indstry is very Jow.T ean pick up my phone and Tmiivestreaming” Zhang sid “How to stand out is eiffel This industry is highly compet tive, but you can persevere, you can get beter and beter” ‘hangs not alone in her deter- ‘All the rage: A sales host conducting a livestream. — Reuters mination to” make -livestream hosting a career. ‘A survey of more than 10,000 young people on social media platform Sina Wetbo last month found that more than 60% of ‘them said they would be interest- ed in working as Internet influ- ‘encers or livestreaming hosts. ‘The livestreaming. industry employed 1.23 million Rosts as of 2020, according to iResearch, and a the pandemic era boom in lives- ‘team sales helped the industry to generate USS48Obil. (RM2.23 til tion) in business in China last year, ‘To facilitate an increasingly professional and competitive In and around oN livesreaming landscape, agen- cies have sprang up to tain sta bles of young hosts and connect Suitable'anchors with brands, Thang, works with based agency Remomo, an arm of ‘renderer Buy Quy wich helps ies ch a8 Tancome and Under Armor With SSO fea “Today, livestreaming i one the most important methods of communication for the brands Wwe works with” said) Romema Vice President shining Li “Tc doesnt ust increase sales, but also helps brands to promote their brand values and products sa very ecient way ae sad. “Reuters Scanned with CamScanner