Xiaomi founder Lei Jun has over 23 million followers each on Weibo and Douyin. - LEI JUN/WEIBOAnd while internet stardom is something younger people typically aspire to, the 48-year-old chief executive of a Chinese luxury electric carmaker recently voiced the same aspiration.
This phenomenon has gained prominence following the Covid-19 pandemic, analysts have said, in a reflection of the stiff competition and depressed demand that China’s businesses have to contend with today. The charismatic 54-year-old made his debut as his company’s live-streaming salesman on Douyin in August 2020, when the pandemic spurred more corporate leaders to use live streams to reach consumers who were isolated at home.Lei is now leaning hard on his personal brand to break into China’s hyper-saturated electric vehicle market, most recently with a 3½-hour live stream on May 18 that saw him drive Xiaomi’s SU7 Pro from Shanghai to Hangzhou while 39 million people watched online.
As live streams and short videos reshape how people consume information, it is important for business leaders to reach out to the public through these means, he explained. “The economic environment is not great” and business leaders are forced to step forward as online influencers to push sales, the associate professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing told ST.