Chinese tech companies of all sizes are rushing into the metaverse, seeing it as an exciting and new business opportunity, as well as a potential market disruptor not seen since short-video and livestream shopping. Roughly 1,600 firms had applied for 11,000 trademarks that included the Chinese word for “metaverse” (yuan yuzhou) by the end of 2021, per The Economist.

Livestreaming is another area Dubsmash is exploring. “We’re investing in different ways to evolve Dubsmash’s video efforts,” the spokesperson said. “We believe that livestreaming is a valuable opportunity that would elevate platform capabilities and enrich the user experience.”. Advertising. Paid advertising on Dubsmash is in the works.

The US is far behind in comparison, though platforms are betting on the popularity of their creators and the recent popularity of livestreaming to drive sales. We expect social commerce sales to reach $79.64 million in the US by 2025.

Nearly all of the publishers we spoke with cited the massive popularity of shoppable livestreams in China as an example. For instance, Lepore said Hunker might engage influencers to host shopping livestreams on Instagram, as a way of helping publisher commerce content franchises grow omnichannel. “We might do that with our gift guide later this year,” he said.

But the potent combination of TikTok’s algorithm, which recommends videos to the right users, and a growing array of time-intensive features, such as livestreaming, have pushed the app to the top of the heap when it comes to engagement among users.

As a result, it’s hard to foresee its livestream shopping platform (Amazon Live) or its lifestyle product images feature (Amazon Posts) having the same impacts as Instagram or Pinterest. Try as it might, Amazon isn’t a cool, fun, curated experience. It is not retail as entertainment, nor is it a social experience.

Livestream platforms such as Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, have also seen strong growth. Per StreamElements data, there was a 45% month-over-month increase in livestreaming hours for the month of April 2020 on major gaming platforms such as Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming. High Impact: Video Game Viewers and Twitch Viewers.

But young consumers in China want to indulge themselves in information, and this is where livestreaming commerce can fill that void. To deliver freshness, companies are forming direct relationships with local farms—and innovating in cold-chain efficiency. Farmers are livestreaming on short-video platforms, such as Kuaishou, to engage with and sell to consumers directly.

Livestream Shopping Catches On in the US. Popularized in China, livestream ecommerce combines QVC-like shopping, game shows, talk shows, and auctions with the ability to chat and purchase in real time. China’s livestream shopping market alone is bigger than every other country’s total ecommerce market—save two.

For example, high-definition livestreams and interactive content may be targeted to individual screens in cars, on wearables, or on smart refrigerators.

Facebook is also experimenting with livestream shopping, which already drive huge volumes of sales in China. There are few notes of caution, though. Although China often adopts mobile trends ahead of the US, the retail industries in the two countries are different enough that there’s no guarantee that something like shopping videos in the US will take off in the same way they have in China.

The news: Google offered a peek at what its search product will look like in the years ahead at its Search On livestream event, and it’s apparently more visual and intuitive than before.

In December 2020, Walmart hosted a livestreaming shopping event on TikTok. Shopify has had a long-standing relationship with the video app—the ecommerce provider recently launched a pilot program that lets merchants enable more shoppable content on TikTok.

In March, Instagram introduced a new feature for its livestreaming service, Live Rooms, which allows users to add up to three other co-hosts to their livestreams. That doubles the number of hosts per live stream from two to four. Marketer Takeaway: The use of live video on social media (and elsewhere) has accelerated over the past year.

Prediction No. 8: Live Streaming is Poised to Get a Second Life. What it means for marketers: The resurgence of live streaming presents an opportunity for marketers to reach new sets of audiences and deepen engagement with existing customers on social and ecommerce platforms. Live streaming is set for a comeback, and it won’t be just for gamers and esports viewers anymore.

Retail social commerce is already a multibillion dollar industry in the US, having earned $26.97 billion in sales in 2020. That figure will more than double by 2023, when we predict retail social commerce earnings will hit $56.17 billion.

Virtual influencers, such as Ling and Ayayi, have garnered millions of followers on social media in China, while endorsing real brands and selling real products on livestream commerce sessions. Aurora Mobile, a mobile developer service provider, recently launched a product that let Roblox gamers send in-game messages that show up on mobile phones as text messages.

That’s not surprising given the high adoption of short-form video sites and the popularity of livestreaming in the country. Subscription OTT video service user growth in particular saw a spike in 2020, exceeding 1.5 billion users. This number will pass 2 billion in 2024.

Meanwhile, Paramount+ runs into trouble: While streaming may be on top in terms of content, Paramount’s livestreaming missteps show that messing up is not acceptable.

Livestreaming ecommerce is perhaps the most relevant to the company’s core business. The ability to host QVC-like livestreams showcasing products has existed since early 2019 but was available only to select sellers until July 2020. That’s when the program opened up to allow members of the Amazon Influencer Program to host livestreams.