By now, it’s been clearly established that live shopping is a big thing in Asian markets, representing a key hope for revenue growth for more Western-aligned social apps. However, while it has been a hit in the East, it’s yet to reach even a fraction of that momentum in the West. Don’t misconstrue it – live shopping has earned in certain Western countries, it just hasn’t taken off as much as anticipated.

Dead Stream

TechCrunch has recently reported that it’s abandoning its live shopping push on Instagram, following its pull out of live shopping from Facebook just August of last year. According to TechCrunch:

“Starting on March 16, 2023, Instagram users will no longer be able to tag products while live-streaming – a capability that has been broadly available to U.S. businesses and creators since 2020.”

In case you haven’t known, live shopping has been huge in China, generating nearly $400 billion in the region alone, in 2022, which is equivalent to almost half of all eCommerce spending in the US (2021). Live-stream commerce has also proven increasingly popular among younger audiences, with users aged 27 and under showcasing the fastest adoption for the option of live-stream spending.

Such has been a key element in boosting TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, which generates the majority of its in-app revenue from live shopping. Sales generated via Douyin live broadcasts rose around 7% YoY in 2021, and on the back of the pandemic-led eCommerce boom, Western platforms had been looking to jump on board, and usher in a new generation of live, in-stream shopping across their apps. Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram – virtually every app has given live shopping a go, but none of them have caught on in the same way that Douyin has.

Now, Meta looks to cut costs to streamline its operations. It’s moving on completely from the process, which isn’t all that surprising given its track record of touch-and-go on most things; if it doesn’t stick, then Meta, despite having launched a project prior, will likely bail the moment the boat takes on a bit of water.

The Wrap

While it won’t have a huge impact on Meta’s overall business plan, given that live shopping was never a critical element for it to begin with, it’s still a loss. If it spells a problem for any platform, the most likely candidate has to be TikTok, especially since it can’t provide alternate means for creators to make money in the app. It seems that live shopping is also given less emphasis, although, at one time, it had also been a key push.

Sources

http://bit.ly/3xs0e9c