Li Jiaqi, the king of selling lipstick in China, made a big mistake: he replicated the military tanks (with cookies and ice cream) used in Tiananmen Square (China) massacre which happened decades ago. As he was in his liveshow, the platform took him off. He had committed an unforgivable sin by reminding the Chinese of that past when he live-streamed the “tanks” on the eve of the massacre’s anniversary.
Then, he has been largely banned. Li is the world’s most successful seller of lipstick and makeup; he has the record of generating $1.7 billion in sales within 12 hours. In other words, he does more in hours than what some companies do in a year!
There are still three more weeks to go China’s annual mega shopping event on November 11, but one of China’s top livestreamers has already sold some $1.7 billion worth of goods in a promotion to usher in the event.
In a 12-hour-livestream on Wednesday kicking off Alibaba’s Singles Day Shopping Festival on its Taobao app, Austin Li Jiaqi — widely known as “Lipstick King” — moved 10.7 billion Chinese yuan ($1.7 billion) worth of products reported China’s Economic Daily newspaper. Alibaba does not typically release sales numbers, but CED cited data from third-party data analysis company Hongren Dianji.
But his creation of a tank with cookies and ice cream is causing problems. Now, China has unveiled new regulations to deal with livestreaming: “The 31 banned behaviors during live-streaming sessions include publishing content that weakens or distorts the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the socialist system or the country’s reforms and opening-up.”
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Simply, that livestream is going to eclipse and distort the world’s largest livestream-commerce market. Ice cream and biscuit (if you prefer that) could be that powerful!!!
Just when it feels the dust has settled on China’s regulatory crackdown on its tech sector, the authorities are shifting focus to another part of the country’s digital industry – live-streaming.
SCMP reports that China has issued new regulation on the live-streaming industry that lists 31 banned behaviors, limiting topics that influencers can talk about.
The latest move complements the government’s efforts since 2021 to regulate the booming digital economy. Other sectors of the tech industry, including payment, ride-hailing and edtech, have been severely dealt with as the government intensified efforts to clip wings and keep everything under the control of the Communist Party.
China Unveils 31 New Regulations to Control Live-streaming Behaviors
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