Inside the Cutthroat World of China Mutual Fund Livestreaming
Foreign firms are being forced to get hip with social media to break into a $2.8 trillion industry.
China's Livestreaming Fund Manager
In a Shenzhen milk-tea shop popular with social media influencers, mutual fund manager Deng Jingdong pins a lapel mic to his shirt, stares down the barrel of a camera, and starts livestreaming to his 400,000 viewers.
To rack up more likes and followers, offers of cash giveaways and free bottles of Kweichow Moutai—the fiery liquor coveted by China’s elite—flash across the screen while Deng extols the virtues of his new fund for Invesco Great Wall Fund Management Co., the local arm of U.S.-based Invesco Ltd. Hosted on the ubiquitous Alipay app, viewers can click an icon and be taken to a page where they can buy directly into the fund, which invests in food, beverage, travel, and health-care stocks that are listed in China and set to benefit from upwardly mobile consumers buying more expensive products.