A staff member presents tapestry weaving of Tujia ethnic group through live streaming at Wulingyuan of Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan Province, June 11, 2022.Photo:Xinhua

Chinese brands are introducing "cam-pets" in their streaming sales to win audiences, and these adorable hosts are bringing "cute economy" to traditional consumer sectors. 

Since Chinese household chemical brand White Cat started its unique streaming on September 15 with a white cat as its cam-pet, brands with animal-related names were bringing "animal spokespeople" on set to help sell their products. 

Candy brand Wowo, which uses a rooster as its logo, introduced a rooster into its livestream. Golden Monkey Food set up a camera at a zoom, filming a golden snub-nosed monkey, while laundry brand Diao, featuring a hawk logo, put a hawk wig on the brand's host during an online sales event.

The so-called "cute economy" is helping these traditional Chinese brands to win the hearts of new consumers, reflecting the importance of livestreaming in promoting sales.

According to a report jointly released by China General Chamber of Commerce and Wangjingshe, in the first half of 2023, livestreaming e-commerce market size reached nearly  2 trillion yuan ($272 billion), and the huge market is attracting Chinese brands to compete by any means available. 

In order to gain a share in the livestreaming e-commerce market and attract new sales traffic for their brands, some Chinese brands have turned to "meme marketing."

Besides pet-streaming, companies are taking new measures to conduct meme marketing. On Wednesday, a video which included chairman of the Baotou Hongwei Daily Chemical Co biting into the company's own soap went viral online in a move designed to show the company's product is not harmful to the human body.  

Against the backdrop of China's economic recovery and retail sector growth, the country's online shopping market is booming. According to a report published by China Internet Network Information Center on August 28, in the first half of 2023, Chinese online retail sales amounted to 7.16 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.1 percent year-on-year. As of June, the country's online shopping users have reached 884 million.