JD com : German and French TV Channels Film JD’s Livestreaming Initiative in Guangxi

by Yuchuan Wang

30 kilometers from the center of Beihai city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Defang Song operates a 28-acre farm growing sweet potatoes, passion fruit and more. This year, with the help of JD, he has sold nearly five thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes online, 50% of which were through JD Live, JD's livestreaming platform.

On August 3^rd and 4^th, ARD (Germany's largest public service television broadcaster) and France24 (a state-owned international news TV channel in France) went to Beihai and filmed the story of Song selling on JD under the impact of COVID-19.

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Defang Song introduces his sweet potatoes to ARD

Since Beihai is a coastal city, Song had the idea to raise agricultural products with seafood like shrimp, fish and crab instead of fertilizer. The price is also double that of normal sweet potatoes. Due to the impact of COVID-19, his sweet potatoes were hard to sell as logistics companies and traditional channels were shut down.

The cooperation with JD helped him sell during pandemic. Since January, he started to supply his sweet potatoes to JD's online Beihai Specialty Pavilion and work with professional livestreamers to promote his products. JD helps him handle delivery from Beihai to consumers' doorsteps nationwide.

Before every livestream, Song will roast some sweet potatoes to give consumers a sense of the quality even when they are not able to taste them.

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Defang Song with professional livestreamers doing livestream on JD

'Livestreaming quickly helps me draw consumers' attentions and brings traffic. I sold over 5,000 kilograms last year, before working with JD. I'm very confident I can sell over 10,000 kilograms this year,' said Song. 'JD is really good at selling online, something I didn't expect. They offer me the livestreaming platform and professional livestreamers. It feels like pennies raining from heaven.'

According to iResearch, a leading research company in China, transaction volume of e-commerce livestreaming is expected to reach RMB 916 billion yuan (~US$ 132bn). But farmers like Song are not empowered with the livestream capabilities. Most of the farmers in China do not know what to say and how to sell during a livestream session which usually lasts several hours.

ARD and France24 also visited JD's livestreaming base in Beihai which was launched in January 2020. The base has 20 livestreaming rooms where JD helps local farmers and companies connect with professional anchors to promote sales.

In addition, JD also holds regular livestreaming training sessions to help more farmers and entrepreneurs learn how to do e-commerce livestreams.

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JD livestreaming training

'Beihai is home to a range of agricultural and seafood products, but they were sold well only in and around the region. With the launch of Beihai Specialty Pavilion and livestreaming base, we will help those quality products sell to hundreds of millions of consumers on JD across the country.' Said Qi Huang, operations manager of Beihai Specialty Pavilion on JD.

JD Beihai Livestreaming Base

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