This week on Sinica, in a show recorded at Syracuse University on September 30, I chat with my old pal Bryce Whitwam about the remarkable rise of live-streaming e-commerce — and how it's already making its way to the U.S.
4:28 – Why Bryce chose to leave Shanghai and pursue a doctorate in the States
8:08 – How big livestream e-commerce has gotten and its predicted trajectory
9:37 – E-commerce livestreaming and the pursuit of celebrity
14:08 – The different types of livestream commerce
17:30 – Xiaohongshu
20:45 – Why Taobao has lost its dominance
22:07 – The value-add of an influencer’s pitch
27:00 – The demographics of Chinese livestream e-commerce consumers
29:09 – Insights from Bryce’s 25 interviews
36:36 – Buying food on livestream e-commerce and how agribusinesses are getting involved in the trend
41:21 – Livestream commerce in the United States
44:34 – How livestream e-commerce has changed the retail experience in China
46:43 – Potential future disruptions in the industry
Recommendations:
Bryce: Jeffree Star on TikTok as an American livestream commerce example and Omar Nok’s “Egypt to Japan Without Flying” TikTok stream
Kaiser: The album True by Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks
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