Why shoppable live streaming failed in Malaysia in 2020?

To give you some context, fail is a strong word, I am sure we see pockets of successful live streaming businesses but I’m writing this collectively, as a whole, how it hasn’t worked in a scalable way. One of the most glaring reasons we haven’t been able to replicate this model as successfully as we’ve seen in China, glaringly is because there hasn’t been a collaboration between industry players to see this come to fruition. Malaysia isn’t a big enough market for YouTube or Facebook to put any focus on, and we are also not the primary focus for Lazada or Shopee as they have giants like Indonesia and Thailand to pursue.

We are also a highly segmented market with no common ground in between. For example the hijabistas love everything Neelofa but the Chinese school kids cannot relate at all. The English-speaking urban Malays (at large) do not follow Malay-speaking influencers and vice versa. They also use different platforms and channels to communicate. Some are on Signal, some on Telegram, some on WeChat and but thank God most have WhatsApp. Navigating live streaming with these challenges while grooming influencers and educating brands about live streaming has been challenging to say the least. Should we continue to pursue? My answer is absolutely yes!

I’ve written a more comprehensive version (more brand-centric version as well) of this in my own blog yuhwenfoong.com