Fast forward to 2021 and live video has become a core feature of China’s biggest ecommerce apps such as Taobao Live, JD.com and Pinduoduo. Shopping is also becoming an integral part of China’s most popular social video apps, Kuaishou and Douyin, Bytedance’s Chinese version of TikTok. More utility than entertainmentThe kinds of shopping apps that western consumers have adopted hitherto have tended to be more utility than entertainment. Shopify’s year-old app Shop tries to combine the two. George Lee, Facebook’s director of product management, concedes that the American and European shopping apps “continue to lag” their Asian rivals due to their heritage in desktop computing.

Source: The Irish Times May 13, 2021 04:18 UTC