Live streaming in China: A Comprehensive Overview of Yizhibo

Live streaming witnessed unprecedented growth in 2016 with a remarkable increase in platforms and users. It’s become one of the most popular trends in Chinese social media and a huge boost for e-commerce.

Although there are many live streaming platforms, Yizhibo achieved outstanding performance in a short time largely due to its partnership with Sina Weibo.

Here’s an overview of Yizhibo.

1. The Successful Launch of Yizhibo

Yizhibo was launched in May 2016. With the partnership between the two platforms, Weibo users can view Yizhibo live streams and videos, interact with broadcasters and send virtual gifts to live broadcasters directly on Weibo without installing any other application. This cooperation has greatly increased Yizhibo’s exposure and popularity.

During the month after its launch, Yizhibo achieved an average of 7.73 million daily active users and more than 300 Chinese celebrities have joined in on the live streaming trend.

2. Functions

i. Live broadcasting

Users can live stream almost anything, such as singing, dancing, tutorials, discussions, Q & A sessions or just their real, everyday life. They can decide the content, duration and performance style. These broadcasts are categorized according to location, popularity, topic, etc.

ii. Interacting

When users join a live stream, they can leave messages anytime to interact with broadcaster. The messages are shown at once and seen by both the broadcaster and other viewers. There are lots of virtual gifts (cars, yachts, etc.) that users can send to the broadcasters. Most gifts require payment.

3. User and Content Characteristics

 The main users of Yizhibo are young and tech savvy, 30% of them are located in first-tier cities in China. Most of them belong to the post 90s and post-2000 (millennial) generations. When celebrities and KOLs start live streams on Yizhibo, their large fan bases tune in. This allows them to engage with millions of people at a time and create enormous influence in a short period.

Live streaming has also increased the rate of information exchange due to its speed and immediacy. Content related to entertainment gossip and trending topics often leads to heated discussions.

4. Key User Behaviors

When Yizhibo users watch a live stream, they will only spend a few seconds to decide whether or not like it. If they don’t, they will change to another channel immediately. To better capture the audience, live streamers need to create strong content capable of retaining viewer attention. For example, the content about make up and skin care are popular in Woman’s Day recently.

Yizhibo’s data also suggests that evening is a better time for live streaming, as user numbers increase, their activity level is higher and viewing duration times are longer at night. Living streaming is a way for people to relax and share their daily life after work.

5. New Marketing Approaches

Live streaming is becoming more and more popular for branding as a good live stream can attract fans, start trends and spread information rapidly.

One successful example is NUTRILITE. In order to promote their products and healthy lifestyles, NUTRILITE launched a live stream entitled “Breakfast for Everybody”(全民早餐日) in Dec 2016. It brought in 150 million viewers in total in only 3 days. This topic in Weibo also attracted million users to share their breakfast.

Recently Haier also started its first live stream to promote the new no-clean washing machines. During the streaming, Haier introduced the product and encouraged the audience to participate in a free trial. This live stream has attracted 1.8 million views and helped itsYizhibo official account attract 0.12 million followers in 2 hours.

Noted that Yizhibo and other live streaming platforms are now major social media players and have provided a new, powerful marketing avenue for brands, companies need to figure out how to create live streaming content that matches their brand positioning, in order to attract fans and make them stay.

Did you find this post useful? Do you want to know more about Yizhibo? What are your biggest challenges in marketing in China? Please leave a comment below. I'm looking forward to read you all!

To see this article with picture/ examples, please visit ChoZan Blog. This article was written by my colleague Debbie and reviewed by me. More amazing resources to help you get results out of your Chinese social media can be found at www.chozan.co