According to the e-commerce information website InternetRETAiling, since its launch in November 2018, OOOOO, the UK's first live streaming e-commerce platform founded by several former executives of wish.com and TikTok, has been growing rapidly and has been downloaded more than 200,000 times.
OOOOO is an immersive social application. The company said that the app combines entertainment and shopping and enhances user engagement through highly interactive live shopping programs. Simply put, it is a live streaming app for selling goods.
E-commerce live streaming has achieved rapid development in China and has become the main source of revenue for many platforms. According to Forbes, total revenue for China’s live streaming e-commerce industry will reach $305 billion this year. Recently, the trend of live streaming to sell goods has also rapidly emerged in the United States. In addition to TikTok and several social entertainment giants, a large number of vertical live streaming platforms have also raised funds.
Realizing the commercial potential of the UK retail and entertainment industries, Sam Jones, former co-founder of Wish.com, and his Chinese partner Eric Zhang (senior engineer at TikTok and member of the founding team of musical.ly) jointly founded OOOOO. The company is committed to providing British consumers with an experience that combines entertainment and shopping.
At the same time, OOOOO is also an open social forum where users can join for free. The platform itself actively encourages community development and offers attractive rewards and real-time discounts.
Since its release in November 2011, OOOOO has quickly gained popularity with over 200,000 downloads. Currently, the highest-grossing live shows on the platform can attract up to 10,000 viewers, and the product sales value of a single show can reach £2,500. Teams of creators can earn thousands of pounds in commissions simply by live-streaming on their phones.
Developing the UK live streaming e-commerce industry with an “entertainment first” strategy
OOOOO said that the company is currently adopting an entertainment-first strategy and plans to implement gamification technology to enable the platform to achieve competitiveness similar to that of Chinese competitors. OOOOO's exclusive in-app game MelonMadness will be released soon. Players can get currency rewards and vouchers in the game to purchase products on the platform. The company said the goal of adding gaming content is to increase the platform's community loyalty and user stickiness while boosting revenue.
In addition, the platform has recently added a reward function, allowing viewers to give "emojis" to creators, and these emojis need to be purchased with the currency within the platform, so as to further increase the income of creators. OOOOO will also work with commodity warehouses across the UK to broadcast live directly at the supplier's location; merchants can use this to sell products directly to OOOOO community users, and this service will only charge a 4% commission.
OOOOO said that in just one month, a warehouse in Manchester sold products worth £150,000 through mobile phone live sales.
OOOOO co-founder Sam Jones explained: “Our main target is culture-related industries, such as wine, food, toys, art and handbags. Where there is culture, there is communication. And OOOOO is the most suitable sales platform because there will be live chat and interaction.
We have currently used e-commerce live streaming to allow funds to flow from platform users to merchants. But OOOOO is not just a shopping platform, it should first be an entertainment platform. From warehouses, vineyards, toy factories, jewelry makers to people's kitchens, connecting users with goods is the key to OOOOO's success. ”
OOOOO says its mission is to help creators make a living from the activities they love. The live shows are hosted by creators, and OOOOO provides them with the necessary technology and resources to enable them to build their own businesses and earn sales commissions.
Jones added: “OOOOO is about empowering people to share their opinions about the products they love. We are able to build brands and online businesses for these creators, allowing them to become retailers themselves. We hope to grow the entertainment and arts industries by providing an interactive digital platform for talent to share their work.”
More notably, OOOOO is not currently purchasing advertising to expand its user base. Sam Jones said: "We will not buy ads, but will invest our energy in driving the natural user growth of OOOOO. The company will integrate live entertainment into shopping programs to attract more users.
Guided by this approach, retailers will gain a large number of credible reviews from consumers, while also gaining a highly targeted and highly engaged sales channel without having to spend money on advertising on Facebook or Google or KOL marketing. ”
