Exclusive Interview with Beyond Technology: The TikTok e-commerce live-streaming ecosystem in the UK has matured, and the dividends still exist.

Author｜Zhang Rao

The domestic live-streaming e-commerce industry has concluded its wild growth and entered a deep-water stage. "De-heading" has become the consensus of major traffic platforms. Simultaneously, the overseas live-streaming e-commerce is on the rise, and a blue ocean has just begun. Against this backdrop, "going global" has become the common choice of domestic live-streaming e-commerce institutions. Institutions such as Meione where Li Jiaqi is located, Make Friends, Xin Xuan Group, and Three Goats have all made arrangements overseas.

Yao Wang Technology is the leader in this wave of going global. As a Chinese institution, Yao Wang Technology attempts to transfer the experience and supply chain advantages of Chinese live-streaming to conduct overall live-streaming operations for local merchants.

Under the general trend of globalization, the e-commerce live-streaming market in the UK region of TikTok is gradually emerging. Yao Wang Technology's exploration of going global and live-streaming has injected new vitality into this emerging market. On June 24, the UK region's talent anchor @madebymitchell continuously broadcast for 12 hours with the assistance of Yao Wang Technology. The total GMV of a single session reached 833,000 US dollars, and the order volume exceeded 50,000, setting the highest record for TikTok live-streaming in the UK at that time. On June 30, the total GMV of the UK region's talent anchor @bperfect in a single session was 366,000 US dollars, and the order volume exceeded 19,000, setting the highest record for the merchant's historical live-streaming.

Up to now, Yao Wang Technology has completed the connection and cooperation with more than 3,000 overseas anchors and has built an exclusive product selection base in overseas regions.

Cara, the person in charge of Yao Wang Technology's European region, told 36Kr that the live-streaming e-commerce market in the UK region has begun to mature after two years of cultivation. The influence of merchants and the consumer mentality of users have begun to take shape, and the merchants' cooperation with live-streaming e-commerce is also improving. Even a number of big brands have begun to enter the game. At present, the live-streaming model of integrating talents and stores has been successfully verified. Driven by the continuous emergence of showcases, the mixed-field talent live-streaming will also become a future trend.

The following is an excerpt from the conversation between 36Kr and Yao Wang Technology.

Q: TikTok has been developing in the UK for two years. What is the reason for Yao Wang to enter the game this year? What factors make you judge that now is a suitable time?

A: First, the ecosystem is more mature. Compared to two years ago, the merchant richness and live-streaming operation capabilities in the UK region have been greatly improved, and the consumption habits of users and the popularity of the TikTok e-commerce brand have also begun to take shape. Especially some local brands have gradually developed and defined some fan groups. For example, our client @madebymitchell now has more than 900,000 fans, and the brand has gained new vitality through new channels such as TikTok.

Second, this year, TikTok officials have very good support and incentive policies for live-streaming institutions. We also tried TikTok two years ago, but at that time, everyone had not figured out how to do live-streaming e-commerce in the UK clearly, and it was difficult to replicate the domestic experience in the model. The domestic live-streaming e-commerce talent base is relatively good, and there are also many operational experiences worth learning from. TikTok Shop has made many explorations in the overseas live-streaming e-commerce industry, so we are also very happy to be able to support the platform to make some new attempts. A relatively mature live-streaming e-commerce operation model can already be effectively developed there.

Q: How is the magnitude of such brands on TikTok? How is the cooperation of local brands with live-streaming?

A: Top brands can achieve more than one million pounds in total store sales in a month. The highest single live-streaming record in the UK region has reached 2 million US dollars, which is also the current global live-streaming GMV record of TikTok.

Now the cooperation of these local brands is very high. In fact, when we first entered the game, we also had doubts and wondered if we could really apply the experience of Chinese e-commerce live-streaming in the UK. But the data has been good, and the feedback from talents is also particularly good. We have found that there are also global big brands gradually entering the TikTok e-commerce. A global beauty brand has a team of more than 20 people studying the TikTok live-streaming. They have investigated many times before in order to learn the experience of e-commerce live-streaming. I found that the official teams of such big brands will also trust us very much because now everyone knows that China's e-commerce live-streaming is very professional and mature.

Q: What is the ecological structure of live-streaming merchants in the UK region now?

A: At present, most of the top live-streaming merchants are local brands, which are started by studio entrepreneurship. In addition, international big brands are planning to enter the game one after another. For example, the official live-streaming room of L'Oreal broke through 80,000 US dollars in a single session of the first Super Brand Day in September.

Q: What are the differences in the live-streaming consumption habits of the British?

A: There are many interesting findings. For example, the British don't save much money. Usually, the end of the month is their payday, so we will put most of the big live-streaming sessions in the last week of each month. Another example is that because the weather in the UK is very changeable, it is not suitable for live-streaming when the sun is very good because everyone will put down their phones and go out to play, but it is also not suitable for selling goods when the weather is very bad because everyone will be in a relatively low mood and unwilling to shop. These are the influences of the local customs and culture on the business, which is quite interesting.

Q: What is the live-streaming model of the top merchants now?

A: The top merchants basically achieve daily live-streaming, but the current live-streaming method is still relatively primitive. Most of them are live-streamed by store clerks using mobile phone devices without a professional team. For example, some clothing merchants often just hang a link, interact in real time during the live-streaming, show the size and color, and complete the on-site packaging. There is no professional and systematic live-streaming rhythm and operation method, but the viewership can also reach more than 1,000. Because TikTok is still in the bonus period, even such a simple live-streaming can achieve good results.

Q: How do you analyze the successful live-streaming cases when you review later? What are the driving factors for the success of a live-streaming session?

A: First, the brand size and user base are the foundation. The current cases include @madebymitchell with more than 900,000 fans, and @P.LOUISE, which broke the 2 million US dollars record, has a fan base of 2 million. In addition, it is to fully utilize the mature live-streaming gameplay and work hard on the live-streaming welfare mechanism and the preheating short videos. If the brand is willing to invest costs, such as using the gimmick of giving away an iPhone every half an hour to attract users, and start to preheat for the big session half a month in advance. Coupled with a product combination that is attractive enough, a relatively large GMV can be achieved comprehensively.

Q: How to analyze the cost of such a live-streaming session?

A: Traffic投放 and logistics subsidies are both costs of the big live-streaming session. In addition, there are also the costs of fan benefits and low-cost drainage products during the live-streaming process. At the current stage, TikTok officials will also have strong resource support. Usually, showcases will be jointly borne by the official, talents/merchants, and institutions to jointly undertake various costs and work together for better live-streaming performance.

Q: If a big brand wants to do a million-dollar big live-streaming session, what is the most difficult part in this?

A: In fact, the logic is similar. The first is the user base. For some newly opened accounts, although the brand awareness is high, the number of account fans is not large, and the consumption habits of brand users on TikTok have not yet been formed, so there will be a greater challenge in terms of traffic.

Second, the product attractiveness also needs to be improved. The product assortment of big brands needs to be determined according to the product strategy of the group, so it is not so rich and flexible in new product launches and product combinations.

Q: We have noticed that the merchants who have broken records now are all in the mode of talents + self-owned brands. Are the mainstream live-streaming merchants on TikTok currently adopting this form?

A: 90% of the merchants we have come into contact with are integrated with talents and stores, where talents themselves serve as brand founders for live-streaming. Currently, most showcases are in this form. There are very few pure talent live-streamings for mixed fields.

The difficulty in the development of pure talent live-streaming lies in the need for a high degree of cooperation from celebrities. Merchants also need to spend a lot of energy to cooperate with the mixed fields of talent live-streaming, such as modifying mechanisms, negotiating prices, sending samples, and inventory operations. Currently, whether it is celebrities or mixed fields, the merchant ecosystem has not yet been formed.

Q: Will the integrated model of talents and stores become the mainstream model of live-streaming e-commerce in Europe and the United States in the future? Can the mixed fields still develop?

A: In the future, mixed-field live-streaming will definitely be a trend because the volume of the mixed fields is larger and the ceiling is higher. The integrated model of talents and stores is equivalent to always selling special sessions. The same group of users cannot make unlimited repurchases, and the user group is also difficult to expand infinitely. I think this situation is only the initial stage, and there will definitely be changes in the future.

Q: Then what measures can be taken to solve the problem of the cooperation between celebrities and mixed-field merchants?

A: In the early stage, our institution and the platform need to work together to create showcases to let more people know the potential of the live-streaming industry.

In addition, on the supply chain side, in addition to expanding local merchants, we will also introduce merchants from overseas to enrich the product assortment of live-streaming in the UK region to improve the overall cooperation of merchants in the UK market.

Q: Currently, the live-streaming e-commerce in Europe and the United States is still in the showcase stage, and the platform's investment is very, very large. How long do you internally judge that this stage can last? How can Yao Wang quickly form competitiveness during this period?

A: Taking the UK as an example, we can provide talent and merchant services to the platform, and the talents and merchants on the platform will also actively seek cooperation with us. At this stage, we should establish our own brand advantages as much as possible, let merchants understand Yao Wang's professional ability and level, and expand our influence on talents and merchants.