Live stream marketplace gives rural farmers an e-commerce boom in China
As consumers worldwide move online to source and purchase products, Alibaba’s online video marketplace – Taobao Live – is aiming to help rural farmers get a slice of the e-commerce action.
From April 2019, the channel will reserve a fixed section for two hours every day to feature agriculture live streams. To support the regional branding of these rural areas, it will also work with 15 media outlets, such as China Central Television and Zhejiang TV, to curate more professionally produced live streaming content about fresh produce and the farms that grow it.
“Our rural live stream program will allow farmers to directly engage consumers face-to-face, allowing them to sell their quality produce at better profit margins” Sun Lijun, ALIBABA
Last year, the live stream commerce channel hosted more than 150,000 agriculture-related live streams, which drew over 400 million viewers.
Many agriculture live streamers tasted first success on the platform last year, including Chen Jiubei, who helped farmers in her hometown in Hunan province sell 2 million kilograms of unsalable oranges in 13 days last winter.
Could this kind of initiative find success in Europe?