Marketing in Live Streaming

Live streaming has proliferated worldwide. Through live streaming, streamers entertain viewers with various kinds of live videos, such as music performances, educational, gaming, and how-to videos. Live streaming provides firms with the opportunity to sell products while offering entertainment. Tech giants like TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram have all invested in new features to allow firms to sell products through their live streaming platforms. In 2019, 45% of China's online shoppers made live stream purchases (Regaudie, 2022). By 2021, there were 703 million live streaming users in China, representing 68% of Chinese internet users (Thomala, 2022). In 2019, over 126.6 million viewers watched live streams in the United States, and the live stream audience is expected to grow to 164.6 million by 2024 (Ceci, 2022). A 2021 survey shows that 40% of respondents in the United States purchased in live streams because of great deals, and 30.7% of U.S. shoppers use the live streaming channel because of exciting shopping experiences (Chevalier, 2021). The U.S. live stream e-commerce market is expected to grow to $25 billion by 2023 (Regaudie, 2022).

Despite the rapid growth of live streaming, research on this new business phenomenon is limited. From a viewer’s perspective, why people engage in live streaming is not entirely clear. Some might simply do so for entertainment purposes, while others may be more attracted to a session’s promotional content. How viewers behave in live streams is also interesting: they may pay virtual tips to, or purchase products from, streamers. From a streamer’s perspective, how streamers choose among different types of entertainment to attract followers, how they interact with viewers to retain them, and how they cooperate with manufacturers to market and sell products during live streams are all open questions that require more research. Last, from a platform’s perspective, some of the issues needing further investigation include the criteria for setting virtual tips and commission rates, and for allocating traffic among live streamers.

Against this background, the aim of this Research Topic is to encourage research on marketing in live streaming. Submissions adopting analytical, empirical, simulation, and behavioral approaches are strongly encouraged. Specific themes to be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following:

• advertising in live streaming
• consumer attitude towards live streaming
• consumer behavior in live streaming
• omnichannel marketing in live streaming
• sales promotion in live streaming
• consumer relationship management (CRM) in live streaming
• streamers’ ethics
• tips and gifts in live streaming
• category management in live streaming
• cooperation between sellers and streamers
• social interactions in live streaming
• marketing-OM interface in live streaming.

Keywords: live streaming, live marketing, social interaction, sales promotion, advertising

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.