Soundbites

Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group

Taobao Livestreaming today is a very important app in our mobile Taobao app ecosystem. It's part of the several apps that enable sellers to engage with prospective customers through their own stores, or through KOLs.

Derek Deng, partner of Bain &Co who leads the consultancy's consumer products practice in China

So-called "self-livestreaming "positions the brand to retain consumers for repurchase, and enables timely consumer interaction and support that can improve loyalty and the possibility of lowering the rate of refunds.

Mo Daiqing, senior analyst at Hangzhou-based Internet Economy Institute

In livestreaming, we are seeing surging fees of all kinds being imposed on merchants, like commission fees, traffic fees and the fees to promise offering the lowest price possible. This is clearly a great departure from where the practice first started out, and should be regulated outright.