Finance

The FCA to investment platforms with concerns over the way they deal with interest earned on customers’ cash balances.
The regulator accused some firms of “double dipping,” charging clients fees for holding cash while also retaining a portion of their interest payments in a higher rate environment.

A logo for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images

British investment platforms Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell saw their shares plunge on Tuesday after a U.K. regulator warned 42 firms that it may intervene on fees and interest charges.
Hargreaves Lansdown shares were down more than 7% by late morning trade, while AJ Bell fell more than 8% after the Financial Conduct Authority announced it had written to investment platforms with concerns over the way they deal with interest earned on customers’ cash balances.

The FCA recently surveyed the 42 companies and found that the majority retained some of the interest earned on these cash balances. The regulator said this may not reasonably reflect the cost to those companies of managing clients’ cash.
Many also charged fees to customers for holding cash, known as “double dipping,” the FCA said in a statement Tuesday, adding that companies have been told to cease this practice by the end of February or risk regulatory intervention.
“Rising rates mean greater returns on cash. Investment platforms and SIPP operators need now to ensure how much of the interest they retain and, for those who are double dipping, how much they’re charging customers holding cash, results in fair value,” said Sheldon Mills, the FCA’s executive director of consumers and competition.
“If they cannot make that case, they need to make changes. If they don’t, we’ll intervene.”
CNBC contacted both Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell for comment.

AJ Bell declined to comment, but CNBC understands the firm does not charge a platform fee on cash and would therefore be outside the FCA’s crosshairs on “double-dipping.”
Hargreaves Lansdown said it does not undertake the practice of “double-dipping” but would “continue to work actively with the regulator following today’s letter to further review our practices.”
A spokesman said the firm is “aligned with the FCA’s focus to ensure good value and outcomes for clients and undertook a broad and rigorous assessment of its practices including a review of its Fair Value Assessments earlier this year.” More

Michael Milken attends Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Dinner At Daniel on November 19, 2019 at Daniel in New York City.
Paul Bruinooge | Patrick McMullan | Getty Images

Famed investor Michael Milken expects the Federal Reserve will move slowly on monetary policy — if history is any guide.
In fact, the Milken Institute founder expects the central bank will be sure to tamp out inflation before starting to cut rates so as to avoid a repeat of the 1970s, when inflation ran high in the double digits, Milken said Monday on CNBC’s “Last Call.” He was speaking from the Hope Global Forum in Atlanta.

“History, as you know, repeats in different ways,” Milken said. “In the ’70s, the Fed moved too early. And so yes, we came out of that ’74, ’75, ’76 period. But we had massive inflation at the end of the ’70s once again, with overnight rates up to 21%.”
“And so I think my view right now is the Fed is probably going to err a little bit on discipline today to see what’s occurred,” Milken added.
Inflation and interest rates ran high in the early 1970s before the Federal Reserve dialed back policy. This stop-and-go approach ultimately did not quell rising prices, however.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell will announce the central bank’s latest monetary policy decision Wednesday, when investors will review his comments for signs into when the central bank is expecting to start cutting rates.
In the 1980s, Milken was known as the king of junk bonds. The financier was an early pioneer of leveraged buyouts and, in 1990, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and tax violations. In 2020, he was pardoned by President Donald Trump.

— CNBC’s Yun Li contributed reporting.
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As of the end of November, the National Stock Exchange of India was valued at $3.989 trillion versus Hong Kong’s $3.984 trillion.
India’s Nifty 50 index has jumped nearly 16% so far this year and is headed for its eighth straight year of gains.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index has plunged 18% year to date, making it the worst performing major Asia-Pacific market.

A security guard walks past the National Stock Exchange of India building in Mumbai, India.
Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images

India’s stock market value has overtaken Hong Kong’s to become the seventh largest in the world as optimism about the country’s economic prospects grow.
As of the end of November, the total market capitalization of the National Stock Exchange of India was $3.989 trillion versus Hong Kong’s $3.984 trillion, according to data from the World Federation of Exchanges.

India’s Nifty 50 index reached another record high on Monday. It has jumped nearly 16% so far this year and is headed for its eighth straight year of gains. In contrast, Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index has plunged 18% year to date.
India has been a standout market this year in the Asia-Pacific region. Increased liquidity, more domestic participation and improving dynamics in the global macro environment in the form of falling U.S. Treasury yields have all boosted the country’s stock markets.

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The world’s most populous country also heads into general elections next year, which analysts predict could be another victory for the ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
“For the general election, opinion polls and recent state elections indicate that the incumbent BJP-led government may secure a decisive win, which could trigger a bull run in the first three to four months of the year on expectations of policy continuity,” HSBC strategists said in a client note.
HSBC said banks, health care and energy are the best positioned sectors for next year.

Sectors such as autos, retailers, real estate and telecoms are also relatively well positioned for 2024, while fast-moving consumer goods, utilities and chemicals are among those HSBC categorized as unfavorable.

Hong Kong lags

In early November, the Hong Kong government said it expects the economy to grow 3.2% in 2023, trimming its GDP growth outlook from the 4% to 5% forecast in August.
The city’s government has warned that increasing geopolitical tensions and tight financial conditions continue to weigh on investments, exports of goods and consumption sentiment. Consumer confidence has also suffered in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong’s economy is poised for a soft landing in 2024 as annual real GDP growth moderates to around 2% from 2023’s 3.5%,” said economists at DBS.
“Central to this recovery is mainland tourism revival, fortifying retail and catering sectors.”
China has set a growth target of 5% for 2023. Its third quarter-GDP came in at 4.9%, lifting hopes that the world’s second-largest economy will meet or even exceed expectations. More

Shares of HP dipped more than 1% in after-hours trading Monday following the news.
Berkshire still owns 51.5 million shares of HP, worth about $1.6 billion.

Warren Buffett tours the floor ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder’s Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has reduced its stake in HP to 5.2%, according to a regulatory filing released Monday night.
The conglomerate previously had a nine-day selling streak in mid-September through early October, bringing down the bet on the printer and PC maker to about 10%.

Shares of HP dipped more than 1% in after-hours trading Monday following the news.
Berkshire still owns 51.5 million shares of HP, worth about $1.6 billion based on Monday’s close of $30.37. The Omaha-based investing giant is still the third-largest institutional shareholder of HP, only behind BlackRock and Vanguard, according to FactSet.
Last month, HP issued first-quarter profit guidance that came below Wall Street estimates, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv. However, the firm kept its full-year earnings outlook, signaling that the demand in the personal computers market could still be recovering.
Berkshire initially bought the tech hardware stock in April 2022. The bet, however, hasn’t been lucrative as the stock is still below the level where it was first bought. Shares are up 13% this year, underperforming the Nasdaq Composite, which has rallied nearly 38%.

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Many Buffett watchers had already suspected that the Oracle of Omaha’s intention is to dump the stake entirely.

The 93-year-old investment icon views stock holdings as pieces of businesses, so he typically closes out a position once he starts selling.
“We don’t trim positions. That’s just not the way we approach it any more than if we buy 100% of a business,” he once said.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Wells Fargo received an official notice from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on problems with its use of mortgage rate discounts, sources said.
Wells Fargo hired a law firm to grill mortgage bankers whose sales included high levels of the discounts, said the sources.
Several banks received MRAs about lending practices last year, the CFPB said without naming any of the institutions.
In their industry review, regulators found “statistically significant disparities” in the rates in which Black and female borrowers got pricing exceptions compared with other customers.

People pass by a Wells Fargo bank on May 17, 2023 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Wells Fargo was snared in an industrywide probe into mortgage bankers’ use of loan discounts last year, CNBC has learned.
The discounts, known as pricing exceptions, are used by mortgage personnel to help secure deals in competitive markets. At Wells Fargo, for instance, bankers could request pricing exceptions that typically lowered a customer’s APR by between 25 abd 75 basis points.

The practice, used for decades across the home loan industry, has triggered regulators’ interest in recent years over possible violations of U.S. fair lending laws. Black and female borrowers got fewer pricing exceptions than other customers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has found.
“As long as pricing exceptions exist, pricing disparities exist,” said Ken Perry, founder of a Washington-based compliance firm for the mortgage industry. “They’re the easiest way to discriminate against a client.”
Wells Fargo received an official notice from the CFPB called an MRA, or Matter Requiring Attention, on problems with its discounts, said people with knowledge of the situation. It’s unclear if regulators accused the bank of discrimination or sloppy oversight. The bank’s internal investigation on the matter extended into late this year, said the people.
Wells Fargo, until recently the biggest player in U.S. mortgages, has repeatedly felt regulators’ wrath over missteps involving home loans. In 2012, it paid more than $184 million to settle federal claims that it charged minorities higher fees and unjustly put them into subprime loans. It was fined $250 million in 2021 for failing to address problems in its mortgage business, and more recently paid $3.7 billion for consumer abuses on products including home loans.
The behind-the-scenes actions by regulators at Wells Fargo, which hadn’t been reported before, happened in the months before the company announced it was reining in its mortgage business. One reason for that move was the heightened scrutiny on lenders since the 2008 financial crisis.

Wells Fargo later hired law firm Winston & Strawn to grill mortgage bankers whose sales included high levels of the discounts, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking about confidential matters.

‘Proud’ bank

In response to this article, a company spokeswoman had this statement:
“Like many in the industry, we take into consideration competitor pricing offers when working with our customers to get a mortgage,” she said. “As part of our renewed focus on supporting underserved communities through our Special Purpose Credit Program, we have spent more than $100 million over the last year to help more minority families achieve and sustain homeownership, including offering deep discounts on mortgage rates.”
Wells Fargo was “proud to be the largest bank lender to minority families,” she added.
The bank later had this additional statement: “While we cannot comment on any regulatory matters, we don’t discriminate based on race, gender or age or any other protected basis.”

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Wells Fargo stock vs the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund

Regulators have ramped up their crackdown on fair lending violations recently, and other lenders besides Wells Fargo have been involved. The CFPB launched 32 fair lending probes last year, more than doubling the investigations it started since 2020.
Several banks received MRAs about lending practices last year, the agency said without naming any of the institutions. The CFPB declined to comment for this article.

‘Statistically significant’

The issue with pricing exceptions is that by failing to properly track and manage their use, lenders have run afoul of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and a related anti-discrimination rule called Regulation B.
“Examiners observed that mortgage lenders violated ECOA and Regulation B by discriminating against African American and female borrowers in the granting of pricing exceptions,” the CFPB said in a 2021 report.
The agency found “statistically significant disparities” in the rates in which Black and female borrowers got pricing exceptions compared with other customers.
After its initial findings, the CFPB conducted more exams and said in a follow-up report this year that problems continued.
“Institutions did not effectively monitor interactions between loan officers and consumers to ensure that the policies were followed and that the loan officer was not coaching certain consumers and not others regarding the competitive match process,” the agency said.

Honor system

In other cases, mortgage personnel failed to explain who initiated the pricing exception or ask for documents proving competitive bids actually existed, the CFPB said.
That tracks with the accounts of multiple current and former Wells Fargo employees, who likened the process to an “honor system” because the bank seldom verified whether competitive quotes were real.
“You used to be able to get a half percentage off with no questions asked,” said a former loan officer who operated in the Midwest. “To get an additional quarter point off, you’d have to go to a market manager and plead your case.”
Pricing exceptions were most common in expensive housing regions of California and New York, according to an ex-Wells Fargo market manager who said he approved thousands of them over two decades at the company. In the years the bank reached for maximum market share, top producers chased loan growth with the help of pricing exceptions, this person said.

Change of policy

In an apparent response to the regulatory pressure, Wells Fargo adjusted its policies at the start of this year, requiring hard documentation of competitive bids, said the people. The move coincided with the bank’s decision to focus on offering home loans only to existing customers and borrowers in minority communities.
Many lenders have made pricing exceptions harder for loan officers to get and improved documentation of the process, though the discounts haven’t disappeared, according to Perry.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup declined to comment when asked whether they had received MRAs or changed their internal policies regarding rate discounts.
— With reporting from CNBC’s Christina Wilkie.
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British payments startup SumUp has raised 285 million euros ($306.6 million) in an investment led by Sixth Street Growth and Bain Capital Tech Opportunities.
SumUp Chief Financial Officer Hermione McKee said the fresh capital gives the company “more firepower to act on opportunities” including acquisitions and new country launches.
SumUp confirmed the company is worth more than it was when it raised 590 million euros ($635.3 million) at an 8 billion euro ($8.6 billion) valuation in summer 2022.

SumUp Chief Financial Officer Hermione McKee said the fresh capital gives the company “more firepower to act on opportunities,” including acquisitions and new country launches.

British payments startup SumUp, known for its small card readers, on Monday announced it has raised 285 million euros ($306.6 million) in a bumper round of funding that values the company north of $8.6 billion.
Sixth Street Growth, the growth arm of global investment firm Sixth Street, led the investment in SumUp, while existing existing investor Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, fintech investment firm Fin Capital, and debt financing firm Liquidity Group, participated in SumUp’s latest round as well. The round predominantly consisted of equity, though a small portion of the funds was raised as debt.

SumUp Chief Financial Officer Hermione McKee said the fresh capital gives the company “more firepower to act on opportunities that we see arising over the course of the next two years.”
“If we think about our geographical expansion, in August we launched Australia as our 36th market globally,” McKee told CNBC in an interview last week ahead of the news.
“We have this foothold in Latin America and there’s more expansion that can be done there. Then we look at Asia, how do we think about that region, and then obviously opportunities across Africa. There’s so many opportunities globally. We’re constantly assessing this ‘buy versus build’ strategy.”
With this round, the company says it “continues to build further” on the valuation it attained in the summer of 2022, when SumUp was last valued at 8 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in a 2022 funding round that saw the firm raise a whopping 590 million euros of capital for growth and global expansion. A SumUp spokesperson confirmed the deal is an up round, meaning its valuation is higher than it was previously.
That’s no small achievement given the state of European technology valuations, which have taken a hammering over the past year as investors flee from tech due to higher interest rates and macroeconomic headwinds.

According to venture data firm PitchBook, median valuations declined in the third quarter across all stages compared to 2022, with late-stage valuations showing the most resilience and growth-stage the least.

Earlier this year, existing shareholders in SumUp sold stakes in the firm at a heavily discounted price to its last official valuation. One, online coupons site Groupon, disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it was selling off shares in SumUp at a price that would value the company at just 3.9 billion euros ($4.2 billion).

M&A shopping spree ahead

SumUp, which competes primarily with Jack Dorsey’s payments business Block, formerly known as Square, as well as PayPal’s iZettle, FIS’ WorldPay, Stripe, and Adyen, has been expanding into new lines of business lately, not least lending. The company launched a service that enables merchant to apply for a cash advance or business loans up to a certain limit based on their card sales revenues.
SumUp secured a $100 million credit facility from Victory Park Capital this summer to bolster its cash advance offering. McKee said that the lending product has been going well so far, with the vast majority of its merchants paying back in a timely manner.
“We’re seeing quick returns on that capital, and merchants that are genuinely supporting their growth. And then they’re able to repay that back in a short time periods for the transaction volume that we see,” McKee said.
“We haven’t seen any real pullback in terms of repayment data over the course of the last six months,” she added. “Our models are constantly iterating to make sure that that those factors we’re observing don’t become stale.”
SumUp also launched new point-of-sale offerings, including self-service kiosks that let customers order in stores using a touchscreen interface.
SumUp recently launched Apple’s Tap to Pay feature in the U.K. and the Netherlands, which enables people to tap their card or phone on a vendor’s iPhone using a smartphone app. It’s also been upgrading its existing point-of-sale systems, with its POS Lite and POS Pros countertop systems that can be paired with SumUp’s card readers.
Going forward, SumUp plans to explore more merger and acquisition opportunities to help it drive its expansion abroad.
“M&A is always something that’s on the table,” McKee said. “We have expanded into new geographies in the past with M&A. That’s something we’re always assessing. We have experience in both building an ecosystem as well as buying. And both of these things are available to us, obviously, yes, this just gives us greater optionality and the ability to move quickly, should we see the right opportunity arise.”
SumUp has no immediate plans to go public, McKee added, as it has ample access to capital in the private markets.
“I think it’s proven by this round that we actually have access to private pools of capital, so we don’t need to IPO,” she said.
“We’re constantly improving processes, actually making sure that we are operating at a standard and quality that is appropriate for public markets. But at the same time, this is not something that, you know, is imminent, and around the corner that we’re actively planning for today.” More

Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management have offered to buy Macy’s Inc. for $5.8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The offer values the retailer at $21 per share, compared to the company’s most recent close at just over $17 per share.
Macy’s sales have slumped over the past year as the legacy retailer struggles to keep up with online competitors.

People wait in line outside Macy’s before opening on “Black Friday” in New York City on November 24, 2023. The retail sector’s efforts to entice holiday gift purchases builds to a crescendo this weekend with the annual “Black Friday” shopping day followed by the newer “Cyber Monday.” (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP) (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
Yuki Iwamura | Afp | Getty Images

Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management have offered to buy Macy’s Inc. for $5.8 billion, people familiar with the matter told CNBC on Sunday.
The offer values the retailer at $21 per share, according to the sources. Macy’s closed at just over $17 a share on Friday, down roughly 17% since the start of the year.

Arkhouse, a firm that primarily targets real-estate investment, and Brigade Capital, an asset management firm, would be willing to offer a higher bid based on due diligence, the sources said. The group would already be paying a premium for the department store, which has struggled to keep up with online competitors.
Macy’s has made several efforts to draw customers back to its brick-and-mortar chains. In October, it announced 30 new store locations at strip malls as it tried to pivot away from the traditional shopping mall.
Despite the turnaround efforts, Macy’s sales have slumped, declining 7% year-over-year.
The retailer expressed optimism after its most recent quarter beat Wall Street’s expectations. By the numbers, that performance improvement was driven mostly by sales at brands that Macy’s Inc. owns, like Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, not the namesake Macy’s chain.
Macy’s has become an acquisition target as it grapples with sagging sales and competition not just from online upstarts, but also from brands that would rather sell their products directly to consumers than wholesale through a department store. Kohl’s faced a similar takeover bid in 2022 when it received multiple acquisition offers that it said undervalued its business.

Retailers across the board have faced headwinds this year as volatile interest rates and high inflation weigh on consumers’ wallets. However, consumer spending has proven particularly resilient in the online shopping sector.
Consumer spending was robust online during Black Friday and Cyber Monday but it’s still unclear how strong the holiday season will be after numerous retailers issued cautious fourth-quarter outlooks.
Arkhouse and Macy’s declined to comment. Brigade did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the buyout offer.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates. More

Companies from Jo Malone London to Chinese education company New Oriental have turned to livestreaming sales as a way to stay connected with consumers in China and get them to spend money.
Use of virtual livestreaming hosts was a trend that stood out during this year’s Singles Day, said Xiaofeng Wang, principal analyst at Forrester.
Businesses are also combining ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence with livestreaming.

HAIAN, CHINA – NOVEMBER 7, 2023 – A crab farmer sells crabs via a live webcast at Xinhai village in Haian city, Jiangsu province, China, Nov 7, 2023. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

BEIJING — Livestream shopping is taking off in China, driving development of new tech products such as virtual human streamers and mobile data packages.
It’s an attempt to monetize — and innovate — in one of the few bright spots for an economy that’s largely slowing in growth.

Livestreaming e-commerce saw sales surge by 19% during the latest Singles Day shopping festival in November, while sales via traditional e-commerce dropped by 1%, according to McKinsey analysis.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, retailers in China have rushed to hire or develop in-house livestream hosts to sell products. Individuals, such as online influencer Austin Li, have become celebrities and overnight millionaires through using livestream commerce.
“Livestreaming, particularly livestreaming commerce, is something no country in the world has anything at the scale China has,” said Daniel Zipser, senior partner and leader of McKinsey’s Asia consumer and retail practice.
Now companies are testing out livestreaming hosts that are digitally created humans — either avatars that represent an actual human host, or a virtual human being created from scratch.

That use of virtual livestreaming hosts was a trend that stood out during this year’s Singles Day, said Xiaofeng Wang, principal analyst at Forrester.

“The quality has improved a lot this year, the virtual hosts look more real, at least the ones I’ve seen from Tencent, JD,” she said.
Wang added that using virtual livestreamers is a way for retailers to differentiate themselves from others, as well as reduce the cost of hiring a famous influencer, who might also carry the risk of being involved with celebrity scandals.

Livestreaming, particularly livestreaming commerce, is something no country in the world has anything at the scale China has.

Daniel Zipser
senior partner, McKinsey

Tencent has launched a product that only needs a three-minute video of a user along with 100 spoken sentences to build a virtual avatar.
The company also has a “Zen Video” platform that lets people create simple promotional videos with a virtual human spokesperson.
Some companies are also combining ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence with livestreaming.
Online retail giant JD.com said its Yanxi virtual anchor product — based on the company’s AI model — was used in livestreaming sessions for more than 4,000 brands during Singles Day this year. One virtual streamer broadcast for 28 hours straight, according to JD’s technology arm. 
Baidu, best known for its search engine and Ernie AI chatbot, got into online shopping this Singles Day with the first at-scale use of its virtual human livestreaming product “Huiboxing” on its “Youxuan” e-commerce platform. The company claims virtual humans ran 17,000 streams from Oct. 20 to Nov. 11.

During that time, electronics giant Suning saw virtual human livestreaming contribute more than 3 million yuan ($420,000) in gross merchandise value on a single day, according to Baidu. GMV measures sales over time.
The digital human livestreamers are currently free for merchants to use on Baidu’s e-commerce platform and are based on the large language model behind Ernie bot, said Wu Chenxia, head of Huiboxing, adding the product uses big data to create multiple livestreaming scripts in an instant.
Regulators have their eye on the sector.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT isn’t officially accessible in China. Baidu’s Ernie bot wasn’t available for widespread use until late August when Beijing gave the green light.

A path to 3D livestreaming?

Livestreaming success is also dependent on consistent video connection.
Potential buyers are almost always watching on their mobile phones, while sellers may try to livestream from the field where they are growing the produce.
Mobile service operators China Unicom and China Mobile have started to sell data packages geared toward livestreamers in parts of the country.
These packages splice the network so that livestreamers get priority service, similar to how an express lane on a highway may only allow buses to use it to avoid traffic, said Joe Wang of Huawei’s ICT department.

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All that is based on having widespread 5G connectivity, which allows livestreamers to broadcast outdoors or simultaneously on multiple platforms, he said.
Looking ahead, 5.5G will theoretically increase download speeds by 10 times compared to 5G, and upload speeds by two to three times, Wang said. He expects 5.5G will reach consumers as early as 2025, while AI’s development is letting businesses quickly turn 2D images into 3D ones.
That means, Wang said, that 3D livestreaming may be a reality in about two years.

Why livestreaming is ‘not a hype’

In the meantime, even companies such as Quantasing that sell adult education courses have jumped on the bandwagon by hosting livestreaming e-commerce – generating GMV of 13.3 million yuan in August.
CEO Matt Li said Quantasing holds more than 10 livestreaming sessions at once, and uses technology to decide what types of products and resources to dedicate to each one in order to generate the most revenue.

As fast as it’s grown, livestreaming is subject to China’s stringent regulation on content.
Analysts have also pointed out that livestreaming sales are often impulse buys, leading to many product returns.
From Jo Malone London to Chinese education company New Oriental, companies have turned to livestreaming sales as a way to stay connected with consumers in China and get them to spend money.
Importantly, businesses are shifting from using influencers, known as KOLs in China, to in-house livestreamers, McKinsey’s Zipser said.
“It is a clear indication [livestreaming] is not a hype, but it is something that companies are embracing and putting resources behind and the result of that is something that is here to stay,” he said. More