Taobao, China’s leading e-commerce platform, has launched a new company to offer comprehensive operational services for live e-commerce. The company aims to help celebrities, KOLs, and MCN agencies who are new to Taobao to start live streaming and integrate into the Taobao ecosystem.
According to Jiemian, a Chinese media outlet, the company is run by the live-streaming team of Taobao and Tmall Group. It flexibly cooperates with live streamers, providing them with either a minimum guarantee or a revenue share. The company also helps them with various aspects of live e-commerce, such as account activation, strategic planning, business partnerships, official inventory, marketing campaigns, financial management, venue support, and more. The company’s main goal is to offer a six-month service for new live streamers. After this period, they can choose to build their teams or join other MCN agencies, depending on their adaptation to the platform rules.
The company’s head, Yuan Ge, said that the company is not a competitor to other MCN agencies, but rather a new anchor incubator. It aims to lower the initial operational costs and investment risks for new live streamers and agencies. They can opt out of the service at any time and end the contract automatically after six months. “We welcome agencies to put their new live streamers into our service, and we will help them with the early incubation risks. The project is not for profit, but for support. Our goal is to foster the growth of the live e-commerce ecosystem,” Yuan Ge said.
Taobao, the leading e-commerce platform in China, has created a new company to provide full operational services for live e-commerce. The company’s goal is to help new live streamers and agencies who want to join Taobao to integrate into the platform and grow their business.
According to Jiemian, a Chinese media source, the new company is operated by the live-streaming team of Taobao and Tmall Group. It offers flexible cooperation models with live streamers, such as minimum guarantee or revenue share. It also supports them with various aspects of live e-commerce, such as account activation, strategic planning, business partnerships, official inventory, marketing campaigns, financial management, venue support, and more. The company’s main purpose is to offer a six-month service for new live streamers. After this period, they can decide to build their teams or join other MCN agencies, depending on how well they adapt to the platform rules.
The head of the new company, Yuan Ge, said that the company is not a competitor to other MCN agencies, but rather a new anchor incubator. It aims to lower the initial operational costs and investment risks for new live streamers and agencies. They can opt out of the service at any time and end the contract automatically after six months. “We welcome agencies to put their new live streamers into our service, and we will help them with the early incubation risks. The project is not for profit, but for support. Our goal is to foster the growth of the live e-commerce ecosystem,” Yuan Ge said.
Live streaming was one of the five major strategies of the Taobao and Tmall e-commerce system in 2023, and its importance has been increasing. In the past year, Taobao Live has improved its overall business capabilities and anchor ecosystems, such as releasing support policies to attract more talented live streamers and store broadcasts. The new company is also part of the efforts to develop the ecosystem. Taobao’s direct involvement also shows the high level of competition in the industry.
Moreover, recently, some Chinese consumers have noticed that they can pay for some Taobao orders using WeChat. Taobao customer service said that the WeChat Pay feature is being gradually opened up and is currently only available to some users and for some items. “The feature is in testing, and we will expand its availability soon,” a Taobao customer service representative said. However, they did not give a specific timeframe. As of now, there has been no official response from Taobao or Tmall.
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