Due to the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020, the catering industry, tourism and agricultural retail business were seriously affected. On April 23, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba established its first livestreaming college in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province to train 50 farmers to promote their produce online. Alibaba aims to train 200,000 rural live broadcasters in 2020 with a sales volume of 15 billion yuan (US$2.1b). Training courses focus on the extraction of unique selling points, packaging, video-making skills and branding tactics, as well as language use and how to act in front of the camera. According to China market research firm iResearch, the livestreaming commerce market rose from 19 billion yuan (US$2.7b) in 2017 to 433.9 billion yuan (US$61.5b) in 2019 and it is expected to reach 961 billion yuan (US$123b) in 2020. The success of livestreaming commerce hinges on internet users and the business model has ushered in a new area of investment, which is expected to mature after the widespread commercial use of 5G.
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