Top Influencers Return Double 11?

After experiencing the dismal beauty industry in July, August and September, the three live streamer Luo Yonghao, Yu Minhong from Oriental Selection, and the comeback in September Li Jiaqi may occupy Taobao live streaming.

---

Recently, CHAILEEDO learned that former head live streamer Luo Yonghao on TikTok China confirmed that he would open Taobao live streaming during the Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival, with the first live streaming scheduled for 8 p.m. on Oct. 24. In addition to Luo Yonghao, Yu Minhong from Oriental Selection will also appear in Taobao live on the evening of October 31. (Oriental Selection: an e-commerce live streaming under China's largest private tutoring firms New Oriental.)

With the resumption of Li Jiaqi's broadcast on September 20 and the influx of Luo Yonghao and Yu Minhong, Taobao live streaming will reappear as “Three Kingdoms”. So, does this mean that the beauty of this year's Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival can be "saved"?

“Three Kingdoms” in live streaming on Taobao

Luo Yonghao, the founder of Smartisan Technology, started live streaming on TikTok China in 2020. The total transaction of his debut live streaming on Taobao reached more than 110 million yuan(about $15.1 million). In the same year, Yu Minhong, the chairman and president of the New Oriental Education Technology Group, a leading China's largest private tutoring firms, said in an article on WeChat public account that he would launch a new platform for live streaming at 8 p.m. that night, "Oriental Selection". On September 3, "Oriental Selection" ranked first in the daily list of TikTok China e-commerce anchors with sales of 75,595,000 yuan(about $10.4 million).

With the approach of this year's Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival, the self-proclaimed "No. 4 in live steaming" Luo Yonghao and Yu Minhong announced that they will open Taobao live streaming, triggering widespread concern among industry professionals. "It is not unexpected. From an objective point of view, both sides have their own needs." A senior industry insider told CHAILEEDO that, on the one hand, for Taobao live streaming, new topics are needed to attract traffic. On the other hand, both Luo Yonghao and Yu Minhong that created the Oriental selection, its own business also needs more breakthroughs.

In fact, it is undeniable for Li Jiaqi's influence on Taobao Live Streaming. Among them, beauty has always been Li Jiaqi's core category of goods. During Li Jiaqi's hiatus, the decline of the beauty products on Ali-related platforms was obvious. According to IFC statistics, beauty sales on three major e-commerce platforms in China Ali-related platforms, TikTok China and JD reached 54.16 billion yuan(about $7.5 billion), down 3.9% year-on-year. The growth rate has slowed down compared to the previous two quarters (2.4%, 1.7%). The off-season online beauty retail overall performance is flat. During the same period, beauty sales on these three platforms accounted for 64.6%, 23.5% and 11.9%, respectively, -10.1%, +11.7% and -1.6% year-on-year.

According to a research report released by Guolian Securities in early October, the combined GMV of the cosmetics category (skincare + color cosmetics) on the Ali-related system platform in September 2022 was 19.556 billion yuan(about $2.7 billion), -7.8% year-on-year and +6.9% month-on-month, with GMV of skincare and color cosmetics categories at 14.38 billion yuan(about $2 billion) (-2.9% YoY) and 5.18 billion yuan($713 million) (-19.2% YoY), respectively. Guolian Securities said, "The super-head anchor Li Jiaqi returned in September, and the estimated sales of his Taobao live streaming would reach more than 100 million yuan(about $13.8 million) on the day of resumption, superimposed on the Tmall 99 Bargain Festival and 921 Goodies Festival, etc., the growth rate of the Ali-related beauty system rebounded."

This reflects that the super head anchor has a vital role in stabilizing the Ali-related system traffic and driving sales. And Luo Yonghao and Yu Minhong, is undoubtedly the more ideal choice for Taobao live streaming at present. The Soochow Securities pointed out that Taobao Live Streaming needs super-head anchors, which will help the Taobao anchors form a gradient of competition between "super-head anchors - potential super-heads". For brands, there is more room for choice.

At present, the account "Luo Yonghao" have reached 349,700 followers, and his e-commerce store" has 12,400 followers.

In the evening of October 20, "Luo Yonghao" Taobao live streaming has officially opened, but the current did not find Luo Yonghao himself present. As of 7:24 pm on October 20, the number of people watching the live streaming has reached 1,136,700. The live background screen shows "October 24 Luo Yonghao Debut on Taobao".

So, what is the performance of these two TikTok "top live streamer" in the field of beauty?

CHAILEEDO found that, as of now, the number of followers of the Oriental Selection account for beauty covering the beauty category has reached 1.689 million, far more than the account of Luo Yonghao’s e-commerce store of 471,000. Also according to Feigua data, during July 21, 2022 to October 18, 2022, the transaction amount of Oriental Selection live streaming were between $138 million and $344 million, and the e-commerce store of Luo Yonghao were between $103 million and $138 million. For the beauty category, from September 19, 2022 to October 18, 2022, the account Oriental Selection for beauty were between $13.8 million and $34.4 million, and e-commerce store of Luo Yonghao for beauty were between $1.4 million and $3.4 million.

"Just try"

As we all know, the first three quarters of this year, the cosmetics industry into the winter has been an indisputable fact. Many beauty brands are looking forward to the Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival. So Li Jiaqi live streaming also become the brand "must fight". In the past, the situation of the promotion, while international brands and Chinese domestic brands compete super live streamer, international brands tend to dominate.

So, with the emergence of Luo Yonghao and Yu Minhong with the Oriental Selection, will beauty brands flock to their live streams this year?

A person in charge of a beauty MCN agency based in Hangzhou revealed to CHAILEEDO that because of the time urgency, there are already many Chinese domestic and innovative brands signing up to prepare, "This year many international big brands have signed exclusivity agreements with Li Jiaqi, so there are more Chinese dometics brands intending to cooperate, and innovative brands are hoping to reveal."

However, there are also a number of industry professionals who have given other views. Jiubian Beauty founder Nod believes that "Luo Yonghao’s debut on Taobao live streaming should still be dominated well-known brands and cost-effective supply chain goods, beauty category may not account for too much, he himself and his followers portrait and beauty fit is actually not high."

However, for the beauty industry has experienced nearly a year of winter, Luo Yonghao, Yu Minhong successive influx of Taobao live, can still be counted as a dawn worth looking forward to. After all, compared to the TikTok China e-commerce, which take advantage of the quality content, the current Ali-related platform is still one of the best platform for selling goods. Therefore, many industry insiders also said, "Just try. But whether we can do good performance is hard to say".