Benzinga | Dec 3, 2021 09:27AM EST

Alibaba Loses Live-Stream Shoppers To TikTok Popularized Short Videos

The Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) founded live-streaming shopping market is disrupting Alibaba's primary businesses, Taobao and Tianmao, Financial Times reports.

* The Chinese users of the video app increasingly find live shopping broadcasts from internet celebrities like Dong sandwiched between cat videos and new dance crazes.

* Alibaba's dreamland is getting marred by China's two most prominent and fastest-growing video-sharing apps, Kuaishou and Douyin, owned by TikTok parent ByteDance.

* Their growth comes as Alibaba struggles to fend off antitrust allegations to break up its iron grip on China's 782 million online shoppers.

* "It's not as fun to spend time on Taobao as Kuaishou and Douyin," says Jessy Zhang, an e-commerce analyst at the Chinese market analysis company Daxue Consulting.

* The gross value of all the goods sold on Kuaishou in Q3 grew by 86% to RMB175.8 billion year on year.

* In the first half of 2021, Taobao and Tmall collectively accounted for 48% of China's overall e-commerce GMV, down from 62% a year earlier.

* Alibaba trained more influencers to add to their retinue of online stars, including Viya, who sold RMB31.1 billion of goods to her online fans in 2020.

* Alibaba's biggest earners: skincare, women's fashion, cosmetics, and perfume are particularly popular with live streamers.

* Douyin is trying to gain consumer trust with a protection fund.

* The value of goods sold through live streams will double in 2021 to $313 billion.

* Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 2.95% at $118.40 in the premarket session on the last check Friday.