The Number of Chinese Male Consumers Shopping Through Livestreaming Grew Dramatically in 2020

April 14, 2021April 14, 2021 Kejie Yi

Chinese male consumers are often overlooked, especially when it comes to e-commerce livestreaming. Livestreaming has become a mainstream sales channel over the past few years, and reports have consistently shown female shoppers as the main driving force behind its growth. But that is changing.

A recent report (淘宝直播男性消费报告) from Alibaba-run WeChat Account Taobangdan (淘榜单) found that from 2018 to 2020, the number of male consumers shopping through livestreams has increased dramatically. From 2019 to 2020, the number of male consumers watching live streams grew 205%. In comparison, the number of female consumers grew 111%.

Chinese male consumers livestreaming — The percentage that male consumers take up from 2018-2020. Source: Taobangdan.

KOLs have taken note. For example, if you watch top live streamer Austin Li’s broadcasts, you will notice that his pet phrase has changed from “Listen, all the girls” (所有女生) to “Listen, all the girls and boys” (所有女生和男生).

So who are these men? Where are they from and what are their consumption habits? Let’s take a look:

Chinese Male Livestreaming Consumer Demographics

According to the report, male consumers from 6th-tier cities make up 27% of the total male consumers in the livestream industry. Following this, are male consumers from 2nd and 3rd tier cities. They take up 23% and 18.7% respectively.

Male consumers tend to shop on livestreams between 8:00 to 10:00 PM. The vast majority of viewers are post-80s and post-90s.

In general, Chinese male consumers love watching livestreaming to shop for cars and car-related products, home appliances, furniture, and electronics.

Product preferences depending on the city

For example, male consumers from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou mostly shop for pet products. Chengdu and Chongqing boys love buying flowers and plants. Boys in Tianjin and Shenzhen love buying blind boxes and models.

An interesting trend is that, last year, a Tibetan boy named Ding Zhen (丁真) from Ganzi (甘孜) in Sichuan Province went viral because of his look. (By the way, he looks very good). Statistics show that since then, male consumers in the local area have increased interest in watching livestreams and shopping for fashion products such as watches, sunglasses, shoes, clothes and accessories.

Product preferences based on age

Post-90s male consumers care more about their looks, and they tend to spend more on clothes, beauty products, watches and sunglasses. Actually, post-95s are driving the growth of China’s male beauty industry.

For post-80s, their consumption falls more on family, such as baby’s products, cars and home appliances.

Post-70s male consumers tend to spend more on jewellery, flowers, and pets.

Beauty, Clothes, and Baijiu

There are three product categories worth digging a bit deeper into, those are beauty, clothes and baijiu, a distilled Chinese liquor.

Talking about beauty, cosmetic surgeries and related products have become Chinese male consumers’ TOP5 favorite. In 2019, the number of male cosmetic surgery clients grew 52.3% from the prior year. A common need among male consumers is hair implants.

In terms of apparels, clothes ranging from 50 to 200 RMB are most popular among male livestream consumers. Men tend to have loyal preferences toward certain brands, and they love choosing basic ones. Bosideng, Heilan Home (海澜之家) and Uniqlo are where they looking for to fill their closets.

Top 10 brands that male consumers love when choosing apparels. Source: Taobangdan.

The third category: baijiu. The consumption of domestic baijiu increased 700% in livestream in 2020. Baijiu’s reputation and consumption setting is changing from something older consumers drink to something young and trendy. What may be somewhat surprising is that post-80s and post-90s were the two main consumer groups. Among baijiu, Maotai is the top runner. So much so that Maotai ranked #1 in the food category on Tmall during this year’s 11.11 Shopping Festival.

More Male Livestreamers as Well

Not only are more male consumers shopping through livestreaming, but there are also more and more male livestreamers. Male live streamers make up 40% of total livestreamers on Taobao. Among Taobao’s top 10 male live steamers, 50% of them are KOLs while the rest are celebrities. Behind Austin Li, the next four big names are Timor小小疯, 林依轮, 南风Cheney, and 吉杰.