Livestreaming sector in Tonglu booms

A livestream shopping host from Tonglu county, Zhejiang province promotes scarves on the video-sharing platform TikTok. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

After working as a teacher in an English language training center for over a decade, Xue made a decision in November to become a livestream shopping host on video-sharing platform TikTok instead.

These days, Xue hosts livestreaming sessions in a livestreaming base in Tonglu county, Zhejiang province, promoting scarves for Hangzhou Meipin E-commerce Co Ltd.

According to Zheng Fabo, CEO of Hangzhou Meipin E-commerce Co Ltd, TikTok is now a popular platform that Chinese companies are using to attract sales from overseas markets.

Because of this, talents like Xue who are proficient in English have been growing in demand. To bolster its promotional efforts, the company has also reached a partnership with a local English language training agency to use its teachers as part-time livestreamers.

A livestream hosted by these teachers garnered more than 9,000 viewers in five hours and achieved sales of nearly 1,300 British pounds.

An increasing number of people who used to teach English in places like Hangzhou and Anhui have been flocking to Tonglu to tap into these livestream opportunities.

Lei Huixin, head of the Tonglu e-commerce bureau, said that more support will be put in place to cultivate talents in cross-border shopping livestreaming to sell more goods from the county to overseas customers.