Douyin (Chinese TikTok) and Taobao have signed a new partnership agreement which marks the third year of cooperation between the the two companies. Alibaba Group’s Taobao is a huge online marketplace for goods and also has a livestreaming platform – Taobao Live.
The agreement will help promote Taobao’s services on Douyin, including providing a direct link to goods and relating content to hot topics on the e-commerce platform. This advertising will provide Taobao with a wider reach, and, according to Questmobile, Douyin will bring 35% of Taobao’s traffic this year.
Speculations put the value of the new agreement at roughly 20 billion RMB, which is three times the amount of the previous year’s. However, this figure has not been confirmed by Taobao or Douyin.
Douyin recently increased the service fees for products from third party platforms (including Taobao). As of August 20, Douyin started charging a 20% service fee to livestreamers who offer a shopping link to third party platforms.
Retailers are increasingly looking to short-form video platforms to promote sales and Douyin has worked with the retailer Suning, while Taobao has also collaborated with Bilibili.
