36Kr has learned from multiple industry insiders that Douyin is reducing the traffic allocation for influencer live streams and redirecting it toward high-quality short videos and brand-led live streams.
An industry insider told 36Kr that the reduction in traffic for influencer live streams can be keenly felt on Douyin. In June this year, the gross merchandise value (GMV) growth rate of his instant food category store’s influencer live streams dropped from double digits to single digits. “The influencer operators around me are all struggling. We need to adjust our strategy in the future, focusing on short video placements with key opinion consumers (KOCs) because it seems like the platform is distributing traffic to those who put serious effort into short video content,” the industry practitioner said.
A person close to Douyin confirmed that ByteDance indeed plans to reduce the proportion of influencer streaming on the Douyin platform. He believes this is related to Douyin’s aim to enhance its e-commerce structure and increase the proportion of shelf-based e-commerce.
This source added that, this year, the GMV generated by Douyin’s product cards (including shop windows, searches, mall pages, and recommendations) will account for over 40% of Douyin’s total e-commerce GMV, with the remaining contributed by short videos and live streams. By 2025, this percentage is expected to exceed 50%.
Douyin denied such claims when 36Kr sought confirmation regarding these figures.
A different source familiar with Douyin revealed that ByteDance previously conducted an A/B test, which indicated that user experience is impacted when live e-commerce reaches about 7–8% of the total content. Currently, this figure has reached 15%. Therefore, Douyin hopes to cater to e-commerce demand through shelf-based e-commerce, mitigating the impact on user experience.
According to data from Meritco, this year’s 618 festival saw users refocus on shelf-based e-commerce, notable from the significant boost in traffic for Tmall and JD.com, while Douyin experienced a negative trend during the major promotion period.
In the realm of live e-commerce, brand-led live streams contribute more to ad revenue than those run by influencers. This stems from the former’s ability to provide better consumer experiences while aligning more with the platform’s low-price strategy. Hence, influencer streaming has been more directly affected in the process of adjusting the proportion of live e-commerce.
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Douyin’s super hosts did not perform well during this year’s 618. Data from Chanmama shows that the top three performers on Douyin’s influencer sales list during the event period (from May 24 to June 18) were couple and media creators Zheng Jianpeng and Yan Zhen, Jia Nailiang, and Time With Yuhui. Feigua’s data indicates that Zhang and Yan’s transaction amount during the same period last year was RMB 450 million (USD 62.5 million), but decreased 86.4% to RMB 61.14 million (USD 8.4 million) this year. Li Jiaqi, who did not make the list, achieved about RMB 2.7 billion (USD 375 million) in GMV during the pre-sale phase of his beauty live stream on the first day, but this was a 46% drop compared to nearly RMB 5 billion (USD 694.5 million) in the same period last year.
A person close to Douyin stated that the platform’s first generation of super hosts may be gradually receding in importance as the platform no longer needs to rely exclusively on them to boost its visibility. Instead, the platform can now focus on amplifying the cumulative reach of short videos, brand-led live streams that also purchase ad exposure, and an e-commerce mall that attracts steady demand.
Another source indicated that Douyin’s future plan may be to generate interest and facilitate transactions through content and live streams, while deferring to its mall feature for repeat purchases. Douyin E-commerce will rely on ad exposure, live streams, and short videos to gain traffic, stabilizing user awareness through Douyin Mall to establish a comprehensive e-commerce cycle.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Wang Yuchan for 36Kr.