People’s Daily calls for tighter control of live-streaming e-commerce in China as controversies mount
Live-streaming e-commerce has seen exponential growth in recent years. Sales in the sector jumped 58.9 per cent year on year in the first 10 months of this year, reaching 2.2 trillion yuan (US$311 billion) and accounting for 18.1 per cent of all online shopping sales in China, according to data by the Ministry of Commerce.
03:27
Former private tutors become top-selling live-streamers in China
Some of the top industry players include Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao, ByteDance’s Douyin and Kuaishou Technology. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
However, the market is also seeing some early signs of saturation.
China gained 51 million new users of e-commerce live-streaming last year, fewer than the 75.8 million added in 2021. The numbers are likely to decline further this year, with only 12 million new users added in the first six months.
Still, the People’s Daily piece warned about what it saw as unchecked abuses in a burgeoning market, which it said could hurt consumer rights and reduce market competition.
The opinion piece said that advocating for tighter control of the sector does not mean “hindering its development, but rather ensuring that it stays on a healthy development track to strengthen its future growth”. The piece called on regulators, online shopping sites and merchants to cooperate in fighting market abnormalities.
Chinese authorities have already introduced several rules targeting the industry. In April 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China and six other regulators jointly released regulations aimed at reining in malpractices such as selling fake products, falsifying view numbers and promoting pyramid schemes.