China’s ‘live streaming sales queen’ sold rocket launch service on Taobao

China loves buying products through live streaming, but you don’t expect to find people hawking space tech in their videos. But in a live stream on Taobao on Wednesday night, a famous live streaming host sold a 40 million yuan (US$5.6 million) rocket launch service.

(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, the operator of Taobao.)

The service comes from ExPace, a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. Changchun-based Chang Guang Satellite Technology bought the right to a launch and to place ads on ExPace’s Kuaizhou-1A rocket. ExPace said the rocket previously completed eight successful launches.

Live streaming host Viya, who’s sometimes referred to as the live streaming sales queen in China, has more than 18 million followers on Taobao. This stream attracted more than 19 million viewers, showing how live streaming ecommerce has grown. The market is projected to grow to 916 billion yuan this year. On the same night as Viya’s live stream, indebted tech entrepreneur Luo Yonghao live streamed on Douyin, China’s TikTok, and made more than 110 million yuan (US$15.5 million) with 48 million people tuning in.