One-hit wonder? Viewership slumps for Luo Yonghao’s second livestream after viral debut

Tan KW

Publish date: Tue, 14 Apr 2020, 02:24 PM

Chinese tech founder Luo Yonghao’s debut live-streaming appearance might have been a viral hit, but he will not be counting on live-streaming as a full-time job any time soon.

Luo sold more than 100mil yuan of products the first time he livestreamed on short video app Douyin, with 48 million users tuning in on April 1. However, the founder of popular smartphone brand Smartisan was unable to replicate this success with a second appearance last Friday, which only attracted around 35mil yuan in sales from around 11 million viewers, according to data provider newrank.cn.

In the livestream last Friday, Luo demonstrated using a laptop while exercising on a walking machine. “It won’t affect your work schedule and you may not even be aware that you have already exercised two hours,” the entrepreneur, who is in his late forties, said. “As an old guy, it’s not easy to demonstrate like this,” he commented as he got off the machine.

Luo’s venture into the format comes as he works to climb out from a mountain of debt which landed him on China’s notorious debtor blacklist and resulted in him being banned from planes and high speed trains in the country last year. Livestreaming, already a booming industry in China, has also seen a surge during the pandemic as tens of millions of people stay home to help prevent the spread of the virus.

In a post on his official Weibo account on Thursday, Luo had said that he enjoyed selling products online just as he did any other creative endeavour.

“I’m counting on the income, counting on it to help me pay off my debts and counting on it to help me advance my business,” he wrote.

However, he added that while livestreaming will be an important sales channel for his business going forward, it will never be his main occupation.

Livestreamers need highly professional abilities to succeed, as independent internet industry commentator Zhang Dingding told the Post last week.

While Luo’s first livestream was considered a success, his sales were still a fraction of what some professional live-streamers such as Li Jiaqi, who raked in more than US$145mil in sales on Singles’ Day last year, can earn.

Still, some say Luo should not be written off so quickly. “Even Luo, as an Internet celebrity, also needs to attract new fans,” one Weibo user wrote. “After all, [top live-streamers] Li Jiaqi and Weiya have been working hard for a long time.”

Luo is famous in China for his flamboyant personality and outrageous claims that include bashing Xiaomi and Apple. He has more than 16 million followers on Weibo and is considered a well-known figure in China’s tech scene.

At the end of 2019, Luo announced on Weibo that he had personally taken a loan of more than 100mil yuan and raised tens of millions of yuan more to help save Smartisan, which he founded in 2012.

Smartisan made a deal to transfer some of its patents and employees to TikTok owner ByteDance earlier this year, enabling the latter to launch the Smartisan Nut Pro 3, which has been nicknamed the TikTok phone.

- SCMP

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