Live streaming mania

By Sammi Liu

When the inability to visit physical space becomes the new norm, can live streaming save the art market?

For the past few months, not been able to go back to Beijing and talk to my colleagues and peers in person made me in deep trouble with FOMO, flicking through art news three hours a day, trying to find a cure for my gallery which had been closed for four months and just re-open in May. I am not even sure we can go back to normal before the next spring comes.

Early in March, China was already in lockdown for over a month. I was in London and in my heart, I was celebrating not being in China a little. But the tragic news and rumors at home was difficult to ignore. My iPhone screen time regularly exceeded 7 hours a day. Coronavirus thoughts crowded out any crisis planning for business. Many artists, galleries, collectors donated artworks to raise money fighting Covid. Nobody felt right to voice publicly their worry about business difficulties admist a patriotic war on Covid.

It wasn't until two weeks before the launch of Art Basel Hong Kong Online Viewing Room when an urgency hit me. We needed to get on with work or we would miss Basel's OVR submission deadline. A deadline seemed to do good.

Soon after, the UK government declared its own Covid lockdown. All non-essential businesses were closed from March 23. Within a week, I saw how swiftly and comprehensively galleries in the UK reacted: a thousand online viewing rooms, Instagram lives, ZOOM events, videos, games, podcasts, newsletters were launched towards your screens.

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In contrast, I feel a little ashamed to admit that no Chinese galleries did much in our first week or month "working from home". But thankfully around Basel HK OVR time, the Chinese art world finally came alive and everyone raced to promote, exhibit and sell online.

Live streaming is not new to the contemporary art scene in China. Around 2015/2016, there was a deluge of venture capital backed live streaming startups in China and a number of them operated in the contemporary art space. In almost every gallery opening, you could find these octopus like tripods holding multiple iphones, each live streaming to a different app. The content was mostly curator and artist guided tours. I took part a couple of times introducing our shows although I never dared watching replays. The logic to take part seemed solid: It was free marketing to an audience size beyond the dreams of any artists. Published viewing count for a session could reach six figures although I had never met anyone who said ‘Oh, I know your gallery from that live streaming’. Most streaming apps probably faked their data to get more finance and naive galleries simply wasted their time. This waste did not last long though. By 2017, almost all live streaming apps vanished.

Covid forced Chinese galleries to revisit live streaming. This time, guided tours, artist talks and panels took place on Zoom, Tiktok, Bilibili and a few other art themed apps such as Zai Yi and Yi Dian.

My FOMO drove me to watch over twenty live streaming events run by Chinese galleries. Most of them last between one and two hours. However the longest time I ever stayed with one event is about 20 mins. People read out written script. Conversations presumed lots of prior knowledge. It was like walking into a wrong lecture. There was no interaction with the audience much less Easter eggs and giveways that are common practice for content creators in other fields. In one Zoom meeting that I attended, I recognised half of the participants. (Colleagues in the art industry.) So where are the target audience? Are we live streaming to ourselves? What for?

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During the lockdown, social media influencers proved to be a powerful sales channel where followers are happy to buy whatever they recommend. Gallarists have not traditionally held influencers in high opinion. Understandably, they want to keep a low-key profile and project a professional image. They want to associate with wealthy clients or potential clients who they assume are not on social media. So all of a sudden, galleries find themselves churning out content without an audience, they desperately want to become the very thing they pretended did not matter to them before the crisis.

I see many gallerists who have never accepted interviews before are now live streaming, give out art education in a professorial tone. The style is what makes them most comfortable: artspeak, peppered with name drops of artists, collections and awards. However, do audience buy their credential? Can they build influence live streaming to a mass audience?

And there is a C word. To the Chinese government, contemporary art symoolizes rebellion. Nudity, violence, and politics are the big taboo. Discussions on the tightening grip of control also banned. If anyone tries to follow the ‘content guidelines’ published by live streaming platforms, they soon find out it is nearly impossible to do make any content. Live streaming involves uncut, raw conversation and in the art world, it is impossible to do so without mentioning social incidents, news or history. When a live streaming channel gains popularity, it will attract heavier surveillance and may consequently be banned. Recently, Nintendo's popular online game Animal Crossing has been banned because activists in Hong Kong are using it as a platform to speak and their cyber protests are streamed on live streaming platforms. Artists who are also using Animal Crossing to host non-political virtual exhibitions also became collateral damage.

I wonder if this live streaming mania infecting the art world is coming from Taobao Streaming, the live streaming rooms on China's largest online shopping platform. Taobao entered the streaming market late in 2016 bringing the TV shopping experience to the mobile age. Streaming sales in 2019 is reported to be 28 billion US dollars. On Taobao Streaming, which is developed for mobile shopping, presenters use a host of strategies such as cash-back, in-session lottery, coupons and so on to encourage viewers to place orders during a live show (and Taobao can provide credit too). The sales presenters do not shy away from hyperbolies like 'if you don’t click buy now, you will regret it for rest of your life’. This kind of sale strategy was completely alien to the gallery world, me included. We consider art sell to be like an elegant dinner party. If not for the Covid pandemic, I probably would not be interested in Taobao Streaming. But once I have seen it, I have to admit, it opened up my understanding of what live streaming could do. Many live streaming hosts have loyal fans who watch them on a daily basis. What’s their magic potion? Think about the streamers with the most loyal fan base such as video gamers, sports commentators, or even adult models, getting their audience addicted seems to be the common characteristic of them all. How do we create "addiction" in art streaming?

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The biggest influencer on Taobao is called Viya. She has 17.5 million and growing followers. Her streaming sessions attract to five plus million views even Kim Kardashian appeared in her show to sell perfume. Viya's fans bought 6000 bottles of KKW perfume within 30 seconds. I watched the recap of many Viya live streaming sessions, she could sell anything: from lipstick, food, wine and even books. She can talk very fast without stop, switching between demonstrating her productws and replying to viewer questions. Every couple of minutes, her streaming room will drop a surprise where viewers can enter a lottery of a free gift, and sometimes, a game you can click on to win a coupon. Viya’s team will find a way to keep viewers’ spirit high. In addition, Taobao has implemented this click to buy function in all live streaming to stimulate sales, when presenter mentioned a product, the buy link will pop up on your screen, just like the amazon one-click buy, the purchase can happen in a second. Viya’s sale strategy also involves telling you how unique this live streaming is, whatever products you see in the live streaming are selected and tested from hundreds of similar products, and Viya’s fans can get an exclusive deal that no other presenter on earth can provide. I have tried to purchase during one of the live streamings, the experience is exciting even self-affirming because I saved 30% by using a coupon I earned from playing a popup game.

I am convinced that if galleries want to step into the live streaming business and build influence, Taobao Streaming and Viya provides a valuable lesson. I know many would say art is far different from other commodities, but if I can be hooked up by those sales strategy on Taobao streaming, is it a sign to drop certain prejudice?

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About the author

Sammi Liu is the founder and executive director of Tabula Rasa Gallery in Beijing, a contemporary art gallery promotes emerging Chinese artists, she's also founder of almost art project, an outsider art festival in China, and the host of artispoison podcast.