Mobocity’s bet, by the former head of Aliexpress, on live commerce

Company believes higher conversion rate of live videos will continue to attract brands

Selling a $5.6 million rocket online, attracting buyers to 288 apartments in seven minutes or selling 3,000 Xiaomi cell phones in less than an hour are some of the achievements of live streaming, live sales on the internet made by influencers, professional or amateur sellers. The model, which did not exist five years ago, already accounts for 20% of China’s ecommerce revenue – and explains why Yan Di decided to leave the command of the giant Aliexpress in Brazil to dedicate himself to this market.

“China’s number one influencer sells $3 billion in a year. It is the same as a quarter of revenue from the entire Mercado Livre”, compares Yan Di, referring to Vyia, queen of sales lives on Taobao and Weibo networks. “Live commerce is just starting in Brazil and in the European and American markets.”

To create Mobocity, a platform specializing in live commerce, Di teamed up with Zhang Zhen, founder of Influu. The influencer marketing agency becomes the basis of the new business, already enabling the operation also in international markets

In the last five years, Influu has been doubling its revenue and should reach US$ 15 million this year. It went from 15 to 100 employees, allocated in different countries, and achieved the feat of already being one of the main live commerce partners of TikTok and Kwai.

“Last year, TikTok surpassed Google as the largest internet traffic in the world and live commerce is already the largest type of content that runs on this social network in China”, says the CEO. Despite the predominance of TikTok, the entrepreneur’s bet is that this market tends to become more fragmented. That’s why one of Mobocity’s bets is the live hub, a technology that allows multiple sessions, with engagement, in real time for different social networks. “The brand wants to be ubiquitous,” he says.

According to Mobocity, the average sales conversion rate with text and photo in China is 0.5% per 100 people, rising to 1.5% with short videos ready and to 4.3% with lives. “This helps in the income of those who sell too. Being an influencer used to be a fancy thing in Brazil, but today it doesn’t even earn a minimum wage and the explanation is monetization in the sponsored content model”, he evaluates.

The partners argue that this is not a pandemic fad, which should lose strength, since new generations spend much more time on video apps than text and images – setting a new consumption pattern.

The company is run with its own capital but wants to hold a round with institutional investors later this year. Ebitda is positive, guarantees the partner, but in order to gain visibility and hire talent, it may need a new financial boost.

Source: Value Pipeline