Alibaba Loses Live-Stream Shoppers To TikTok Popularized Short Videos

The Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA founded live-streaming shopping market is disrupting Alibaba's primary businesses, Taobao and Tianmao, Financial Times reports.

• The Chinese users of the video app increasingly find live shopping broadcasts from internet celebrities like Dong sandwiched between cat videos and new dance crazes. 
• Alibaba's dreamland is getting marred by China's two most prominent and fastest-growing video-sharing apps, Kuaishou and Douyin, owned by TikTok parent ByteDance. 
• Their growth comes as Alibaba struggles to fend off antitrust allegations to break up its iron grip on China's 782 million online shoppers.
• "It's not as fun to spend time on Taobao as Kuaishou and Douyin," says Jessy Zhang, an e-commerce analyst at the Chinese market analysis company Daxue Consulting.
• The gross value of all the goods sold on Kuaishou in Q3 grew by 86% to RMB175.8 billion year on year. 
• In the first half of 2021, Taobao and Tmall collectively accounted for 48% of China's overall e-commerce GMV, down from 62% a year earlier. 
• Alibaba trained more influencers to add to their retinue of online stars, including Viya, who sold RMB31.1 billion of goods to her online fans in 2020. 
• Alibaba's biggest earners: skincare, women's fashion, cosmetics, and perfume are particularly popular with live streamers.
• Douyin is trying to gain consumer trust with a protection fund.
•  The value of goods sold through live streams will double in 2021 to $313 billion. 
• Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 2.95% at $118.40 in the premarket session on the last check Friday.