Comeback king: China’s disgraced livestreaming ‘sales king’ sells in 12 hours what a Hong Kong mall sells in 12 months

Xinba, one of the biggest influencers on Chinese streaming platform Kuaishou, sold US$300mil worth of goods in a single session. The streamer became the subject of controversy last year after selling fake bird’s nest – an expensive Chinese delicacy. — SCMP

China’s disgraced “king of livestreaming sales” made a big comeback on March 27 when he sold more than US$300mil (RM1.24bil) worth of goods in a single show lasting 12 hours, a record for streaming platform Kuaishou, showcasing the market potential of live-streaming e-commerce after growing in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kuaishou is Xinba’s livestreaming platform of choice and China’s second-most popular short-video site after ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. The session attracted four million viewers at its peak, and Xinba sold more than 16 million items across categories as diverse as shampoo and smartphones, according to social media data provider Bihu Kankan. Total gross merchandise volume (GMV) topped 2 bil yuan (RM1.26bil). Kuaishou did not officially publish the figure for the session, and sales numbers are neither audited nor count for returns and refunds.