FUN-FILLED E-COMMERCE BOOSTS CONSUMPTION

Short video platforms, online hosts mesmerize hundreds of millions of consumers

On Nov 6, 2018, Chen Weijie, 30, an online celebrity based in Meizhou village, Guangdong province, South China, sold 160 million yuan ($22.6 million) worth of products during an eight-hour live-streaming session on Kuaishou, a short video platform. The marathon online sale was almost nonstop, except for short breaks to drink water or answer calls of nature.

Welcome to China's online world of short videos that is fast morphing into content-driven e-commerce. Here, people such as Chen sell 30,000 toothpastes within one minute, or nearly 100,000 pieces of thermal underwear in about 10 minutes, or 10,000 Xiaomi smartphones during a live-streaming session.