Smartisan's founder sets new sales record

Luo Yonghao, founder of the smartphone company Smartisan, attracted an audience of 48 million to his first show as a livestreaming celebrity featuring products for third parties on the short-video platform of Douyin on Wednesday, where he topped the sales record of the platform, registering 110 million yuan ($15.44 million), according to sina.com.cn.

In the three-hour show, he sold 22 kinds of products with XGIMI H3 projector (36.40 million yuan), Xinliangji spicy crayfish (20.45 million yuan) and Roborock floor mopping robot (over 17 million yuan) taking the top three spots.

Since March 26 when Luo Yonghao said he would join hands with Douyin, the former New Oriental English teacher who calls himself the first generation of internet celebrity spent just 12 days on striking the cooperative deal with Douyin and putting on his first show, during which he hit the headlines and became increasingly hot.

According to sina.com.cn, Luo said 10 year ago that he will retire and enjoy life if he earns as much as 10 million yuan. So in the following years, he has kept starting businesses like founding a blog website Bullog, an English-language training school named after him and the smartphone company Smartisan. He continued to jump from one choice to another, encountering twists and turns, and suffering failures.

Analyzing the reason why Douyin partnered with Luo Yonghao who has a poor record in selling his own brand of smartphones, sina.com.cn said was because of his "topic creator" identity rather than how many products he can sale.

Luo has attracted more than 7 million followers on Douyin on Thursday since late March, as per sina.com.cn.

Apparently, it is already calculated by Douyin that Luo Yonghao has a super call-to-action ability, and that is exactly what Douyin needs, sina.com.cn said.

According to sina.com.cn, Douyin is eager to forge a marker post in terms of livestreaming sellers, who constantly top search lists without any special effort. Luo suits such demand.

Compared with Taobao and Kuaishou, another major short-video platform in China, Douyin's livestreaming business in the e-commerce sector has performed below expectations. Statistics from the Everbright Securities show China's livestreaming market in e-commerce sector is expected to reach 440 billion yuan in 2019, with Taobao accounting for 250 billion yuan, Kuaishou 150 billion yuan and Douyin merely 40 billion.

Sina.com.cn said Douyin is known more as a short-video provider than an e-commerce platform, plus its advising video for commercial clients has run under full capacity, accounting for 10-20 percent of its video content. Pressed by Taobao and Kuaishou and limited by its advertising space, the cooperation between Douyin and Luo Yonghao may help Douyin open up a new prospect.