JD.com joins video platform Kuaishou in livestreaming sales deal in time for China’s midyear shopping festival

Although JD.com has its own livestreaming platform, Kuaishou’s 300 million daily active users are expected to give the e-commerce specialist a strong boost. JD.com announced on Monday that it will host more than 300,000 key livestreaming sessions during this year’s 618 shopping festival. — SCMP

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com will partner with short video platform Kuaishou to boost its presence in livestreaming as a growing number of traditional merchants move sales online following the countrywide lockdowns imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.

The partnership comes ahead of China’s annual midyear 618 shopping festival and could give Beijing-based JD.com and Kuaishou a significant boost in sales from livestreaming to help them compete with e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba, which saw gross merchandise volume (GMV) generated from livestreaming soar 100% year on year in the first quarter.