The Voice of China contestant Zhang Bichen sings on the show. Photo: CFP

Popular reality singing contest show The Voice of China launched its online store on tmall.com, China's largest business-to-consumer (B2C) online marketplace, on August 21.

The products "sold" are not ordinary commodities but endorsement services offered by popular contestants on the show.

The store allows retailers on tmall.com to hire popular contestants by paying them endorsement fees to be online spokespersons for their products. The starting endorsement fee is 5,000 yuan ($813) per week, with the highest fee so far hitting 30,000 yuan per week, which is still much lower compared with fees of famous celebrities, according to a statement e-mailed by Alibaba, which owns tmall.com, to the Global Times Wednesday.

The more popular the contestants, the higher their endorsement fee, according to the statement.

This is the first time in China that a celebrity agency is promoting its singers for endorsement deals through an e-commerce website.

Via the platform, new singers who are still not well-known will have more chances to sign endorsement deals for commercial interests. This enables small online retailers, who usually cannot afford high endorsement fees, to hire lesser-known singers to promote their products.

The online endorsement store is operated by social music website xiami.com, which was acquired by Alibaba in 2013, and The Voice of Dream Culture & Media Limited Co (Shanghai), operator of The Voice of China.

"Around 100 retailers are negotiating with us about the endorsement deals," Zhang Jun, a manager at The Voice of Dream Culture & Media, told the Global Times.

Those retailers are in different fields including digital and electronic products, clothing and cosmetics, according to Zhang.

The show

The Voice of China, adapted from a popular Dutch reality show, The Voice of Holland that aired in 2010, became an instant hit among Chinese audiences after its premiere on Zhejiang TV in July 2012, producing a huge bump in ratings for the channel. 

The show consists of three phases. The first is a "blind" audition, in which four judges, who are all famous singers, choose contestants for the show. During this phase, the judges cannot see the performers, and only turn around after the singers have finished or after the judges have decided whether to select them as contestants for the show. The chosen contestants are then mentored by their respective coaches.

In the second phase, coaches will have their team members compete against each other in pairs.

Then in the third and final stage, the remaining contestants compete against each other in performances that are broadcast live, with the coaches and audience voting for the winner.

This July, the show kicked off its third season and has seen its popularity continue to grow.

A total of 57 contestants, chosen by the judges in the first phrase, will be eligible for the endorsement deals.

Long tail

"It will be a long tail for the celebrity endorsement services sector," Zhang noted.

Previously, only famous contestants such as top-four finishers like Wu Mochou, who came second in the first season of The Voice of China, had the chance to sign endorsement deals.

The endorsement fees paid to Wu were over 5 million yuan for each product, according to Zhang.

Via the new online celebrity endorsement platform, retailers on tmall.com can only use the image of contestants on their online stores during the initial period.

Later on, the retailers will be able to ask contestants to use photos of themselves, such as trying on clothes sold in the online stores, Li Kuankuan, a public manager of Alibaba, told the Global Times Wednesday.

Previously, online retailers rarely cooperated with celebrities for endorsements. Most retailers posted advertisements on the front page of tmall.com, or bolstered their credibility through gaining good assessments from buyers.

Normally, products endorsed by celebrities can attract more consumers.

"If an online store could afford endorsement fees, this shows it has strong capital and its products will be more genuine," Zhu Li, a 29-year-old white-collar worker, who has made purchases on taobao.com for over eight years, told the Global Times Thursday.

"The endorsement deals signed with the contestants of The Voice of China show will be helpful for promoting the online retailers in the short term," Zheng Xueqin, director at China Brand Research Institute, told the Global Times Thursday.

But whether they will have a long-term impact on sales for the online stores depends on if the contestants' popularity can continue  after the TV show, according to Zheng.

New law 

Just as this new model of online endorsements has started, the draft of a revised version of the advertisement law, which includes regulations strengthening control over celebrity endorsement deals, was submitted to the National People's Congress Monday, according to a Beijing News report on the same day.

The report said celebrity spokespersons must first use or try products before they endorse the products according to the draft.

"The draft law will make celebrities more responsible for their endorsement deals," said Zheng of China Brand Research Institute.

The contestants on The Voice of China "will strictly obey the advertisement law," Zhang at The Voice of Dream Culture & Media said.

To ensure the quality of the online stores and that the endorsement deals are truthful, tmall.com will strictly review the online stores which sign endorsement contracts with contestants, according to Alibaba's statement.

Both Alibaba and The Voice of Dream Culture & Media told the Global Times that their new venture will have a bright future.

In addition to retailers on tmall.com, more online stores including those on taobao.com, China's leading consumer-to-consumer (C2C) website, will also be able to sign endorsement deals with the contestants on The Voice of China in the future, according to Alibaba, which operates taobao.com.

However, more work needs to be done to pave the way for online endorsements.

"Even if retailers on taobao.com sign these endorsement deals, I would still think twice before buying, as fake products are still being sold online," Zhu Li told the Global Times.

Taobao.com launched campaigns against online piracy and counterfeiting in 2011, after media reports in 2010 listed taobao.com as an online retailer that sold counterfeit products.