We all know that as one of the former top tech platforms in China, Baidu has fallen behind its peers Alibaba and Tencent.
The company has tried to focus on AI and autonomous driving since 2016. However, whether these efforts will eventually pay off is still a question mark.
These are not the only initiatives Baidu is making. It is also … trying out live commerce.
On May 19th, Be Friends, a leading live commerce MCN founded by Luo Yonghao (a popular Chinese influencer and former unlucky entrepreneur), announced its cooperation with Baidu Youxuan (“百度优选”，or “Baidu select”), with the first live session on May 23rd.
A former English teacher known for his funny style, Luo has become an icon in live commerce. In fact, he was the first celebrity Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese counterpart) brought in to promote live commerce.
His first live session, on 1 April 2020, pulled 48 million viewers and generated a total GMV of RMB 110 million (US$ 15.26 million). Over the years, as Douyin pivots its traffic distribution away from top KOLs, Luo and Be Friends expanded into live commerce platforms – Taobao, JD, WeChat Channels, and Rednote.
In fact, Be Friends has built more than 80 livestreaming accounts across different platforms covering different segments of consumers.
Luo’s partner, Zhu Xiaomu, who was with Luo on the first live stream in 2020, later wrote a post detailing the thought process (a good read).
Now a listed company in Hong Kong, Be Friends has an annual GMV of RMB15 billion (US$2 billion) and is profitable. It recently also integrated DeepSeek into its operations to gain greater efficiency.
I watched Luo’s Baidu debut on 23rd May, which drew over 2.3 million viewers (I suppose the stats refer to page views) in just 20 minutes. Like Douyin did in 2020, Baidu must have channeled a lot of traffic to Luo’s session, which was featured on the top of Baidu Youxuan’s 618 promotion page:
China’s ecommerce sector used to be dominated by Alibaba and JD, but over the years Douyin, Pinduoduo and Kuaishou have chipped away significant share.
But aside from the top platforms, there is still significant volume passing through other channels, including WeChat and a lot of private groups. Baidu, which still has significant user traffic as the most popular search engine for many consumers, would surely want to monetise this through ecommerce.
For Be Friends, expanding across multiple platforms is not just about chasing traffic. Having presence on many platforms allowed it to diversify audience reach. Each new platform gives Be Friends access to a new pool of users.
Be Friends MCN is one of the companies that we will meet in the upcoming Cohort 5 of Momentum Works Immersion: Ecommerce & Live Commerce in Hangzhou in September 2025.
Registration is now open – you can register your interest here.
