Cultural Understanding of Live Streaming E-commerce in Asian markets

Abstract

Why has live streaming e-commerce become so popular in Asian countries? The advancement of telecommunication technology is insufficient to explain such a regional phenomenon. In this qualitative research, we analyze live streaming videos to discover cultural indicators to give answers to the question. To do so, we identified the features of live streaming e-commerce, such as identification, parasocialization, and community, from a literature review and reinterpreted them to articulate cultural indicators by applying anthropologists' cultural dimensions. We verified this conceptual methodology through a video analysis method (n=10) based on interpretivism for case study research. We discovered the hidden cultural features such as belongingness, affective engagement, group trust, co-ownership, and so on. The features are consistent with anthropologists' dimensions of Eastern culture, which indicates that the popularity of live streaming e-commerce is highly related to cultural backgrounds. Marketers can consider the features in developing marketing strategies to be more consumer-culture friendly and systematic.