With over 10 million viewers, can the sexy goddess of Hong Kong bring a breakthrough to the video account?

In the wave of e-commerce live streaming, Video Account, as an emerging platform of Tencent, has been looking for a breakthrough. Christy Chung, the former sexy goddess of Hong Kong, has become the first influencer on the platform with more than 10 million viewers with her performance in selling goods on Video Account, bringing a glimmer of color to Video Account. However, although Christy Chung's joining has brought traffic and attention to Video Account, the competition in live streaming e-commerce has entered the second half, and various platforms are seeking to "de-head". Whether this strategy of Video Account can be sustained remains to be tested by the market.

As 618 came to an end, platforms such as Tmall, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili released their battle reports. However, Tencent’s video account, which is the “hope of the whole village”, seemed particularly quiet, with no battle reports and no disclosed data.

The video account was quiet until June 24 when there was some movement - WeChat officially announced that during the 618 period, Christy Chung became the first influencer on the video account to have over 10 million views on her live broadcast of products.

As live streaming e-commerce enters the second half, various platforms are "de-centralizing". The move by Video Account is somewhat different.

Image source: WeChat Open Class

Video accounts have been online for 4 years and have experienced ups and downs. They have shifted from social recommendations to algorithm recommendations, and their e-commerce infrastructure has become more and more perfect, but they have not been able to produce a benchmark figure. Among the early players, Taobao has Li Jiaqi, Douyin has Luo Yonghao and Dong Yuhui, and Kuaishou has Simba; among the late players, Xiaohongshu has Dong Jie, Bilibili has Parrot Pear and Mr. Midong, and the "head anchors" of Video accounts such as Guo Yiyi and the Yan Yi couple are not considered to be truly out of the circle.

Christy Chung is not a newcomer to live streaming sales. In 2020, many celebrities entered the live streaming e-commerce market, and Christy Chung also started live streaming sales on Douyin. However, as the tide receded, celebrities left one after another, and only a few celebrities are still active in the front line of live streaming sales, and Christy Chung is one of them.

Video account chose Christy Chung for 618, which was a two-way rush, and each side got what it needed. One side sought traffic depressions and more opportunities, and the other side sought more merchants and brands to settle in, release the public domain, and attract talents. However, this benchmark figure was somewhat embarrassing. The audience was high enough, but the new vision data showed that the total sales of the entire live broadcast was only about 5.43 million yuan.

The road for Video Account’s live e-commerce to break out of the circle may be longer than imagined.

01 Hong Kong Mermaid, selling goods through video account

On June 18, Christy Chung held up a sign that read "Congratulations sister for exceeding 10 million viewers", and beside her were many assistants and behind-the-scenes staff who were cheering and celebrating.

In this live broadcast, Christy Chung set a new record for herself in live streaming sales on Video Account, and also set a new record for Video Account: Video Account finally has an expert whose single live streaming sales event has exceeded 10 million viewers.

Replaying this live broadcast, we can also see how dedicated Joey Wong is.

Long before the show started, Christy Chung frequently uploaded videos on the video account and started daily live broadcasts. She took fans to learn about the venue of the live broadcast and shared the products and benefits that would be on the shelves that day. The live broadcast preheating took nearly twenty days, which fully attracted users who were interested in the live broadcast.

During the live broadcast, Christy Chung also changed her previous selling scenes and styles.

When promoting sunscreen masks, the background of the live broadcast room switched to the beach. Christy Chung, who once played a mermaid in "The Mermaid Legend", also concentrated on introducing the usage scenarios and effects of the sunscreen masks. When selling bedding, the camera in the live broadcast room switched to the bed, and a city night view background was thoughtfully arranged... Christy Chung introduced each product in Mandarin with a slight accent, and talked about her own personal experience of using it.

Image source: WeChat Open Class

Data from third-party platform Xinshi shows that Christy Chung's live broadcast brought 100 items, with beauty and skin care, food and beverages, and personal care and home furnishing as the main categories, with an average price of 913.6 yuan. The top three sales are estimated to be laundry explosion salt at 3.99 yuan, Chando small purple bottle essence at 269 yuan, and Chando whitening mask at 160 yuan.

This is not the first time that Christy Chung has sold goods through live streaming, and she is not a newcomer in the live streaming sales industry.

In 2020, the former Hong Kong goddess Christy Chung became popular again because of "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves". In May of the same year, she and her husband Zhang Lunshuo started live streaming on Douyin to sell goods.

Christy Chung's disco-style promotion

However, Christy Chung had not figured out the right style for live streaming sales, which caused a lot of controversy. She sold goods in tears in the live streaming room, performed aerobics like Liu Genghong to attract fans, and wore a wedding dress and did a live broadcast with Zhang Lunshuo, dancing and shouting "9.9, get on the bus", which made many netizens "shatter their childhood filters".

Afterwards, Zhong Liti’s live streaming style gradually converged with that of other anchors, and she maintained a frequency of 3-5 live streaming sales per month, but it has never made much noise.

In contrast, Christy Chung is quite active on Video Account now. According to the video account live broadcast playback records, Christy Chung broadcast 20 shows on Video Account in April this year alone, 16 shows in May, and 27 shows in June.

These live broadcasts are more about sharing daily life. Christy Chung is bare-faced and casually dressed. She does aerobics, puts on makeup or chats with fans in front of the camera. Many people in the comments and barrage praised her as "the most down-to-earth star."

In comparison, Christy Chung only live-streamed one Douyin show in June, and the focus of her live-streaming business seems to be slowly shifting to her video account.

02 Celebrities promote products, but the tide recedes

From 2019 to 2020, there was a wave of live streaming e-commerce with celebrities selling goods through live streaming.

In this wave, compared with other stars, Christy Chung is inconspicuous.

Chen He, Liu Tao and Li Xiang have all started live streaming to sell goods

In 2019, Taobao Live wanted to introduce celebrity resources and traffic to Taobao Live, and launched the "Morning Star Plan", which aimed to attract 100 celebrities to Taobao within 100 days and provide traffic support. In 2020, the film and television industry was affected by the epidemic, and many celebrities joined the live broadcast wave to look for new opportunities.

In 2020, Liu Tao became the official preferred officer of Taobao Juhuasuan, nicknamed "Liu Yidao", and her cumulative GMV (sales) exceeded 800 million yuan in half a year; Zhang Yuqi became the spokesperson for Kuaishou e-commerce in 2020, and her GMV exceeded 400 million yuan within 4 hours.

At that time, the habit of live shopping was not yet mature, and various live e-commerce platforms and merchants were quite fond of celebrities: celebrity anchors have their own popularity, which can help platforms and brands attract off-site traffic, quickly expand their popularity, and occupy the minds of users first.

However, as live streaming e-commerce entered the second half, the once high-growth industry myth is no longer there, and major anchors have begun to compete in supply chain capabilities, starting with the most basic "goods". Many celebrity anchors have been caught up in the controversy of "not being able to sell goods" and have withdrawn one after another.

"In the past, merchants thought that hiring celebrities to promote products was a small expense to hire celebrities for advertising, and it was also a gimmick. But now there are more and more celebrities promoting products, and it is not a new thing to hire celebrities to promote products through live broadcasts. People pay more attention to the actual transaction volume and whether the products can be sold." Chen Yue, who works in an MCN agency, has followed several live broadcasts of celebrities promoting products. He said that some celebrity anchors do not really understand live broadcast promotion, and "they are more like mascots in the live broadcast room." In fact, live broadcast promotion requires familiarity with the product and preparation of scripts. A live broadcast can take three or four hours. In many cases, "celebrity is not necessarily suitable for live broadcast promotion."

Jia Nailiang's homepage certified MCN is Yaowang Technology

As the tide receded, many celebrity anchors left the live broadcast room. The celebrity anchors who persisted also signed contracts with MCN agencies to some extent, relying on MCN agencies to explore the supply chain and build the advantages of "people, goods and places". Jia Nailiang, who surpassed Xiao Yangge and became the new top anchor of Douyin in this 618, is backed by Yaowang Technology.

Christy Chung also persisted in live streaming sales, but her performance on Douyin was not outstanding.

According to the data from Chan Mama, in the past 30 days, Christy Chung has done four live broadcasts on Douyin, three of which were live broadcasts to sell goods. However, in the past 30 days, Christy Chung's total live broadcast sales were between 50,000 and 75,000 yuan. The one with the highest sales was a live broadcast on May 29. The entire live broadcast lasted more than nine hours, but the sales were only between 25,000 and 50,000 yuan.

At the same time, data from Chanmama shows that 70.7% of Zhong Christy’s traffic comes from payment, while only 25.7% of the traffic for similar anchors comes from payment; only 15.1% of Zhong Christy’s traffic comes from recommendations, but 50.8% of the traffic for similar anchors comes from recommendations.

At the same time, Douyin live streaming e-commerce has many top anchors. Zhong Liti, who failed in Douyin live streaming e-commerce, urgently needs to find a traffic pool. Video accounts, which entered the live streaming e-commerce market relatively late and lack top anchors, have obviously become her new opportunity.

03 Can celebrities bring brands into the live broadcast room?

Taobao Live, Douyin, Kuaishou and even Xiaohongshu all came up with celebrity strategies in the early stages of their development, but the early video accounts did not rely on algorithm recommendations but took the path of "social recommendations."

In 2021, Zhang Xiaolong said at the WeChat Open Class, "At the beginning, we wanted to invite celebrities to join the video account, but the celebrities said they didn't want to come without a signing fee. We said, don't come if you don't want to. I believe that ordinary people have great creativity. On the contrary, purchased content may not necessarily impress people."

However, as Tencent's repeated attempts in the e-commerce field failed, Video Account has gradually become Tencent's "hope for the whole village" and has shouldered the pressure of growth. At the same time, anchors previously promoted by Video Account, such as Guo Yiyi and the Yan Yi couple, are also wavering between platforms.

Guo Yiyi's video account and TikTok account

Guo Yiyi, who once created a GMV of 50 million yuan in a live broadcast on Video Account, first released his works on Douyin. He only live-streamed once in June. Xinshi data showed that the sales of this live broadcast were estimated to be 4.34 million yuan. Later, Guo Yiyi stated on the Video Account homepage that he would no longer live-stream in June, but planned to start his first Douyin live broadcast on June 29.

On the other hand, the Yan Yi couple, whose GMV of live streaming sales on Video Account exceeded 20 million yuan, are actually anchors that grew up on the Kuaishou platform. Although they have made a name for themselves by live streaming sales on Video Account, they still live stream on Kuaishou.

The uncertainty of the top anchors has made Video Account somewhat nervous. In seeking cooperation with Christy Chung, on the one hand, Christy Chung's live broadcast frequency and sales amount on Douyin are not high, and she is also seeking new traffic opportunities; at the same time, according to Chanmama data, 78% of Christy Chung's fans are women, most of whom are from new first-tier cities and aged 31-40. Women have many fans, strong spending power, and pursue quality, which perfectly fits the fan profile of Video Account.

Fan portrait of Christy Chung’s TikTok account

At this year's WeChat Open Class, the person in charge of Video Account said that female consumers accounted for 78% of Video Account consumers, consumers in first-tier, new first-tier and second-tier cities accounted for more than 60%, and people aged 30-50 contributed 40% of the increase in Video Account.

Christy Chung’s personality is also enough to attract these women. She was once a sexy goddess, and she still lives her own life even after she turned 50. She has money, free time, and is free and generous - this is exactly the female image that many middle-aged women yearn for.

However, Christy Chung's live broadcasts are often more like a show of support for a person: Xinshi data shows that the estimated total sales of this live broadcast, which set a new record for video viewing, were only 5.43 million yuan. Christy Chung's daily live broadcasts are mostly attended by nostalgic viewers. In the comment area and barrage, there are endless comments such as "eternal goddess" and "I grew up watching your movies". Whether these nostalgic fans can pay for Christy Chung's live broadcasts is still unknown.

From another perspective, Video Account may just want to use the case of Christy Chung to attract more celebrity anchors. In the official news of Video Account, it was clearly stated that Christy Chung’s live broadcast "provides a feasible path for celebrity talents to develop on the platform."

Celebrities and influencers may not be able to sell goods, but they can bring high-quality fans and user groups behind the celebrities, and can also attract brands to enter the video account live broadcast room. According to official WeChat news, in Christy Chung's 618 live broadcast, Apple, Li Ning and Curel chose influencers for distribution on the video account for the first time, and more than 20 brands including Kefumei, Moutai and Fuanna participated in the entire live broadcast.

The main purpose of video accounts is to attract a lot of traffic and users to the live broadcast room, and also to attract brands. However, in the second half of live broadcast e-commerce, brands have also tightened their belts and are more concerned about sales and how much goods are sold. The star effect is inevitably insignificant in front of the sales data. With the popularity of video accounts with celebrity live broadcasts, more eye-catching sales data is needed to prove the feasibility of this model on video accounts, so as to attract more brands to bet on the live broadcast rooms of video accounts for a long time.