A Livestreamer in China Sold Almost SGD$6 Billion Worth of Products in a Year

The online world seems to become our best friend these days as we stay home more often.

We shop for groceries online and food can be delivered to our doorstep within a few taps on our phone.

For some businesses which were forced to shut during the Circuit Breaker (CB) period, they took to Facebook live streaming to sell their products online.

Wang Lei: Fresh seafood anyone? And who can forget the famous S Hook Jie Jie? Touted as the lady who can sell almost everything, we were glued to her live steams.

Singapore’s success stories might seem impressive, but wait till you read this.

Over at China, there’s also another famous S Hook Jie Jie by the name of Huang Wei, more commonly known in the Taobao world as Viya.

And guess what?

Sold over S$6 billion Worth of Products through Livestreaming Last Year

No, no typo there. It’s BILLIONS – the one that starts with B.

The 35-year-old live streamer has sold 30 billion yuan (S$6 billion) worth of products through her live streaming room last year.

So what are some of the products that she sells online that can earn her so much ka-ching? Property?

No.

The popular live streamer sells almost everything under the sun on Taobao. Yes, much like Faceook, Taobao has livestreaming for merchants to peddle their stuff.

From cosmetics to cars, all the way to home appliances, she is the salesperson every company dreams of having.

In fact, Viya is so popular that many famous celebrities overseas, such as Kim Kardashian, has collaborated with Viya to increase their brand awareness to the China audience.

The star e-commerce anchor is so successful in her craft that she’s ranked 38th in Forbes China Top 100 Celebrities List in 2020.

The secret behind her success?

Her credibility and building a loyal group of followers.

According to Jing Daily, Viya has a team of 200 people who will rigorously test out the products on a daily basis. Only those that have gotten Viya’s final approval will make it to the live streaming. This stringent production selection process helps build Viya’s credibility. Simply put, whatever she sells will be goody.

In addition, over the years she has amassed a strong group of female followers (her Weibo account has 11 million over followers) who trust Viya’s recommendations. As such, whenever Viya’s recommends something, her followers will be the first to purchase these products.

So you can say that she’s an influencer + seller.

Success Didn’t Come Easy

But success didn’t come overnight for Viya. She started off her career in the fashion business.

Back in 2003, Viya began her entrepreneur journey by opening a small clothing boutique selling women’s wear with her boyfriend (now husband), at a wholesale market in Beijing.

The couple later moved to Xi’an and eventually opened seven shops.

Aside from her business, she also used to be a singer in a hip hop group called T.H.P in 2007.

Viya later changed her fashion business model to focus more on the digital sphere. That was because she saw one of her customers, who was doing a fitting at Viya’s store, opened the Taobao app on her phone to check for better deals.

At that point in time, the star anchor realised the potential of online businesses.

Viya then closed down all her brick-and-mortar stores to focus more on her online business.

In order to repay a debt of 2 million yuan (~S$404k) in the first year of her online venture, Viya and her husband had to sell off two of their homes.

Things started getting better when she collaborated with Taobao in May 2016, where she became a live streamer.

This entails her having to interact with audiences on a live show, touting the products she sells and encouraging viewers to make purchases on Taobao.

According to Baidu, Viya’s livestream had over 100 million yuan worth of transactions merely four months after she first joined Taobao.

An Entrepreneur Who Gives Back to Society

As an entrepreneur with a heart, Viya focuses on giving back to society as well.

In 2019, Viya travelled to a few underprivileged provinces such as Yunnan and Henan to promote special local products through over 50 live streams, generating more than 530 million yuan in sales.

In August this year, she was elected to the 13th committee of the All-China Youth Federation.

The star is shining very brightly on this star anchor with a heart.

And also, if you’ve friends who think that livestreaming on Facebook is a fad and not a career, please share this article with them.