Why hasn't live streaming e-commerce become popular in North America?

Peng Jiarong P

·2024-12-11 13:39

European and American internet celebrities do not accept live streaming content models that have been successfully verified in China.

In the Chinese e-commerce industry, live streaming e-commerce is almost a standard feature for platforms. But in North America, live streaming sales have always been lukewarm. Some domestic friends planned to do overseas live streaming sales training, but in the end, it was just a big talk with little success. Why hasn't the business model of live streaming sales, which has been successfully validated in China, become popular in North America? Is it a pattern issue? Or is there a lack of talent? Or cultural differences? Not long ago, I talked to several friends from MCN institutions about this topic.

First, let's talk about the situation in the US market. Both Meta and TikTok have invested heavily in trying live streaming e-commerce, but unfortunately, these attempts have all ended in failure. In early 2023, Meta announced that its social platform Instagram would shut down live streaming e-commerce. TikTok also announced in July 2023 that it would abandon expanding its live streaming e-commerce business in the North American market.

Coresight Research, a data analysis firm, disclosed in a survey report that more than two-thirds of Americans have never seen live e-commerce. Among Generation Z young people, less than 50% have heard of live streaming e-commerce users.

A partner of a domestic MCN institution told me that these data may seem to indicate a vast market space for live streaming e-commerce in the United States, but in reality, American users have a much lower acceptance of new things than Chinese users. Therefore, it is extremely challenging to make "stubborn" American users accept live streaming e-commerce. In addition, the attitude of American internet celebrities towards live streaming e-commerce can almost be described as' lying flat '. The other party told me that his organization attempted to provide live streaming sales training services for American internet celebrities from 2023 to 2024. After more than a year of experimentation, it ultimately ended up with a dismal seven figure loss.

The other party analyzed that Chinese internet celebrities can live passionately for several hours at a time, and the live content is all related to the products sold. But almost no American internet celebrities accept such cooperation. TikTok online celebrity Michael Lee once cooperated with Wal Mart to conduct a live broadcast on the TikTok platform, but the time was less than 5 minutes, and in the 5 minutes of live broadcast, there was no mention of the products cooperated with Wal Mart. Neither Wal Mart nor Internet celebrity Michael Lee was satisfied with this cooperation, and finally broke up in discord.

"Well known online celebrities don't accept live streaming, can we train newcomers who are willing to accept this mode? The answer is No. Many Americans think that the common phrase of live streaming, like" original price 199, now only 29 ", is deceiving consumers, so the newcomers who receive training don't accept this statement. Moreover, American online celebrities prefer to show their talents in live streaming, and they think that the end will be put in the first place. These are the lessons we learned after paying a lot of costs.". The person said so.

After communicating with many friends from MCN institutions, it is widely believed that the dominance of the offline retail industry in the United States is also an important obstacle to the prosperity of live streaming e-commerce in the country. In the United States, whether it is discount stores such as shopping centers or outlets, their sales networks are already very mature, and sales terminals are sufficiently deep in rural areas, except for big cities. In addition, it also has a fixed consumer group, and the loyalty of this group of users is extremely high. This also leads to merchants being unable to offer sufficient discounts to live streaming e-commerce platforms to attract users, as they do in China.

If you are a brand owner, today you got the lowest discount in history from the anchor during the live streaming sales segment, and tomorrow the outlet may take down all of your products. This is completely different from the situation in China, where traditional channel merchants in the United States are too dominant and have extremely strong price control, which makes it almost impossible for live streaming e-commerce platforms to get enough attractive discounts like in China, "said another MCN official who declined to be named.

The other party believes that one important reason for the popularity of live streaming e-commerce in China is that manufacturers can offer the highest discounts to live streamers during the live streaming sales process. This limited time rush buying approach is one of the important reasons for the success of this model. However, in the US market, live streaming e-commerce hardly offers similar low discounts to attract users. In addition, there are many emerging brands in China that have risen through live streaming e-commerce, and these entrepreneurial stories have inspired more startups to dare to all in live streaming e-commerce. However, in the United States, it is difficult to establish a brand image solely through e-commerce sales.

The last reason why live streaming e-commerce cannot become popular in North America is the attitude of the giants. In today's e-commerce industry in China, almost no one, whether at the top or middle level, questions the business model of live streaming sales. But it's not like that in the United States. The business logic of Amazon, the largest e-commerce platform in the United States, is to encourage users to shop as soon as possible and then leave as soon as possible. Saving users' shopping time has become Amazon's business principle, and live streaming sales that only last for a few hours are obviously inconsistent with Amazon's current preparations. In 2020, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos proudly told shareholders that at Amazon, 28% of purchases are completed within three minutes, and half of purchases are completed within half an hour. If a user shops twice a week on Amazon, they can save 75 hours per year.

In summary, internet celebrities in Europe and America do not accept the live streaming content model that has been successfully validated in China. The strong offline channels prevent live streaming e-commerce hosts from obtaining the best price discounts. American consumers usually distinguish between entertainment and shopping behavior, unlike Chinese consumers who easily combine the two. The largest e-commerce giants in the United States are not active in live streaming e-commerce, which are the reasons why live streaming e-commerce has not become popular in North America. This also indicates that not all business models that have been successfully validated in China can be copied from the North American market.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Peng Jiarong Chris P" (ID: Chris P0012), 36 krypton is authorized to release.

The viewpoint of this article only represents the author himself, and the 36Kr platform only provides information storage space services.

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