After being an anchor, Liu Qiangdong was also anxious

Written by Moriichi

Liu Qiangdong is going to do a live broadcast in person, but in the form of a digital person.

In a large e-commerce company of the same size, there is no No. 1 person who has rushed to the front line of live broadcasting. The signal significance of Liu Qiangdong's move can be said to be very obvious.

Earlier, JD.com had announced that it would invest 1 billion in cash and 1 billion in traffic to attract more original creators and high-quality institutions to settle in. It can be seen that JD.com has made great efforts to develop content e-commerce.

It's just that this blockbuster news for Jingdong doesn't seem to have stirred up too many waves on social platforms, and it doesn't even have Liu Qiangdong's wife, and the appearance of the milk tea sister has a big impact.

#章泽天家族病史#, she has stayed on the hot search lists of major social platforms for a long time in the past two days, and her appearance changes and clothing style have aroused long-lasting enthusiasm for discussion. The hot search charm of the first generation of Internet celebrities is still the same as it was back then.

In the content e-commerce track, compared with Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, etc., which JD wants to catch up, what JD lacks most now may be iconic characters like Milk Tea Sister, who can be on the hot search with every move.

01

From the perspective of the company's genes, JD is definitely not good at content e-commerce.

Traditional e-commerce represented by Taobao and JD.com, and content e-commerce represented by Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, etc., have grown and expanded according to two different logics.

Traditional e-commerce is to attract consumers with the goods themselves, so in the past, the competition was about cost performance, return and exchange, and the convenience of express delivery. JD.com's unique self-built logistics also reflects its superiority in the traditional track.

However, content e-commerce is expanded from content consumption, and consumers initially go to the platform to watch content, get "consumption inspiration", and then extend from spiritual consumption to material consumption.

If we talk about traditional e-commerce, it is the user who chooses the goods only when they have a clear consumption demand. Then content e-commerce may even "create demand" in the process of content viewing, allowing users to buy things they were not prepared to buy.

The latter may have more room for imagination, and its magic has already reversed more and more people's consumption habits.

According to the Research Report on the Development of Online Audiovisual in China (2024), more than 70% of the surveyed users will make online purchases because of watching short videos and live broadcasts, and more than 40% of users believe that short videos and live broadcasts are their main consumption channels.

In the face of such a situation, it is impossible for Liu Qiangdong not to be anxious.

Not to mention Douyin, Kuaishou, these new opponents who want to overtake in corners, even the old opponents, traditional e-commerce Taobao, although they also lack a foundation in the content area, but over the years, they have accumulated a lot of influential anchors with goods, only Jingdong is "poor and white".

Liu Qiangdong's digital people rushed to the front line, and he may also hope to win by surprise. Even if it is impossible to have the effect of other head anchors at the beginning, it at least shows determination to the inside and outside of the company and blows the horn.

Moreover, digital human live broadcast, even in the logic of traditional e-commerce, may play a practical role in optimizing the online shopping experience.

02

Liu Qiangdong and JD.com's urgent demands are not difficult to understand. The response from the outside world has been mediocre, probably because there has been a broad consensus on this shift for a long time, and as for the final effect, everyone is waiting and seeing.

It's not just JD.com that realizes the magic that content can play in the consumer market.

Just recently, Meituan Video announced the "Chunming Plan", a creative incentive plan, which invests heavily in traffic support and incentive sharing to attract content creators and MCN institutions.

Similar moves also include Alipay. In June 2023, Alipay launched a year-long talent incentive policy to stimulate users to create short videos on the platform. Some netizens posted screenshots of the income show that the video with an effective playback of 456,000 yuan has an income of 12,143.43 yuan.

Retaining users and stimulating consumption through content can be said to have become a consensus option for all platforms.

This lively scene is just like the major Internet platforms vying to be social and self-media platforms back then, and one of the lessons of history is that the content ecology is by no means something that can be smashed out of money.

If you go to the platform to produce content for money, whether its content can create effective traffic is one thing, and whether effective traffic can be converted into goods is another thing.

The likely result is that the heavy money can only be piled up with one grass platform, and when the money is spent, the grass platform team will be scattered.

03

As far as JD.com is concerned, it is self-evident that it is difficult to shift from the most typical traditional e-commerce to content e-commerce.

Not to mention that JD.com lacked the most basic content ecology before, from the perspective of user characteristics, third-party data has shown that male users account for more than sixty percent of its users. Compared with the people who watch the live broadcast and place orders, in addition to Kuaishou, more than sixty percent of female users such as Taobao and Douyin place orders.

This also means that in the field of live streaming, JD's user structure is not dominant.

This gender detail also shows that the choice of the development path of an enterprise is determined by a variety of complex factors, and is not subject to the will of a single person.

Therefore, no matter how determined Liu Qiangdong is, whether the transformation to the direction of content e-commerce can be successful, in the end, it depends on the new resources and directions, and whether it can effectively connect with the existing ecology of JD.com.

Just like last year's Double 11 Jingdong procurement and sales live broadcast room, it once had huge traffic and good results in bringing goods, but it was not able to continue the miracle later.

Jingdong needs a new story, but how to tell this story is a test of Liu Qiangdong's transformation ability.

If you don't consider the transformation of the underlying ecology and only look at the short-term effect, let the milk tea sister Zhang Zetian go out of the mountain to be the Jingdong anchor, which is enough to be a hot search for a few days.