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Livestreaming shines a light on Australian wines for Chinese consumers

By Wednesday 20 March 2019No Comments

More than 600,000 Chinese viewers got a taste of Australia’s wine regions with two leading Chinese key opinion leaders livestreaming their experiences of Yarra Valley’s TarraWarra Estate and Mandala Estate virtually through Alibaba Group’s Taobao marketplace, China’s largest mobile commerce destination.

James Halliday AM also participated in an interview with the key opinion leaders sharing his insights and views on Australian wine. The livestream was run as a segment on Taobao’s ‘Buy Australia’ program and received more than 5.12 million likes from viewers.

The initiative comes as Chinese consumers continue to develop their taste for Australian wines with exports to China at an all-time high.

Maggie Zhou, managing director of Alibaba Group in Australia and New Zealand said: “This livestreamed experience has shined a light on Australian wines and wine tourism experiences. The activity is a great example of Alibaba Group’s ecosystem working together to benefit Australian wine producers and tourism businesses alike.”

James Halliday said that as Chinese demand for Australian wine grows, so too does their palette for different varieties: “It was a thrill to share more information about Victorian wines to a large Chinese audience this week. We were able to showcase the climate and landscapes and how they produce world class Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio among others. Another thrill was sharing the passion of our boutique, family owned winegrowers and their premium hand-crafted wines with such a large international audience.”

Key opinion leaders from China included blind tasting champion Adam Zhu and Tianfeng Yan, a TV personality and professional wine and food pairer.

Zhou says that engaging key opinion leaders is a strong strategy for marketing to younger Chinese consumers, who are also a key growth market for Australian wine producers.

“After reviewing recent purchasing trends made via Alibaba’s platforms, we found that there was a significant growth in imported wine sales made by younger consumers in China,” Zhou says.

“We have also found this group of young emerging wine drinkers are more experimental with their product choices and therefore more likely to purchase a unique wine from Australia.”

Launched in 2003, Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com) is a social commerce platform that allows consumers to enjoy an engaging, personalised shopping experience, optimised by big-data analytics. Through highly relevant and engaging content and real-time updates from merchants, consumers can learn about products and new trends as well as interact with each other and their favorite merchants and brands on Taobao Marketplace.

Merchants on Taobao Marketplace are primarily individuals and small businesses. According to Analysys, Taobao Marketplace was China’s largest mobile commerce destination in terms of gross merchandise value in 2017. Taobao Marketplace is a business of Alibaba Group.

Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that it will be a company that lasts at least 102 years.

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