Russian woman becomes livestream success

Almost every day, Zaiceva Maria Yurievna spends several hours promoting Russian food via livestreaming platforms. She has become a popular host with more than 30,000 fans.

Zaiceva, 30, came to Hunchun, Jilin province 10 years ago from Siberia, Russia.

When the coronavirus pandemic broke out earlier this year, she found vitality and resilience in her online business.

"Because of the restrictions for being out, I found more people spending time on livestreaming platforms and purchasing commodities, which surprised me," she said. "So I opened an account on short-video platform Kuaishou to try selling Russian food, including sausage and chocolate."

The online business turned out to be less profitable than she had hoped at the beginning.

"At first, I had only hundreds of followers, but I didn't give up," she said. "During the livestreams, I spend lots of time communicating with my fans instead of only selling goods."

She usually talks about Chinese and Russian culture from through food and customs, which helped her attract more fans.

"My goods have been sold in different areas around China," she said. "I got the highest record of profit with 4,000 yuan ($611.60) a day."

After becoming a host, Zaiceva began to learn more — not only more Chinese characters, but also some new skills, such as editing videos.

Besides Russian food, Zaiceva also promotes some local specialties of Hunchun to her fans.

"I witnessed great changes in Hunchun over the past 10 years," she said.

As a port city, Hunchun has become more open in recent years, which has provided many opportunities, she said

"Living in China makes me feel happy and safe," she said. "Hunchun is my second hometown and I hope I can do something for it. I will continue my online business and I hope to open a tourism company in the future."