20: The Challenges for Chinese Live Streaming Apps Expanding Overseas with May Youssef of Uplive

Today I speak with May Youssef, who is part of the Public Relations team for Asia Innovations Group, the parent company of the popular live streaming platform Uplive.

According to May, Uplive is the biggest Chinese live streaming platform outside of China and is very popular in the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. We discuss the unique features of Uplive, the challenges they face when expanding into new markets all over the world, and the tactics they use to assimilate the app into local cultures.

There are a growing number of Chinese live streaming platforms attempting to develop outside of Mainland China, and Uplive is certainly one of the forerunners so it was very interesting to hear May’s perspective.

Note: This interview was pre-recorded and at the time of release May has moved on to a new role and is no longer with AIG.

Additional Notes:

• What is AIG, the parent company of Uplive
• In 2016, Uplive had 100 M users worldwide
• Biggest Chinese live streaming company outside of China
• Popular in the Middle East, Taiwan, HK, Indonesia, and India
• Before they launch in any region, they do in-depth cultural research
• Big emphasis on global interaction
• Decentralized system, hire foreigners who understand Chinese, Chinese people in the region, customize the app for the region
• The platform includes features such as the global village, international PK, and simultaneous translation to encourage users to interact with other users from around the world.
• Voice translation and chat translation – viewers can write in their own language and it will be automatically translated into the streamer’s language, also have subtitles for viewers to understand what streamer is saying
• Launched in India last year, in less than 7 months became top live streaming app in Google Play in India
• Originally focused on high growth, large population regions, now starting to shift focus to Africa, South America, and Europe
• Different regions of the world like different content, for example: in India there is a lot of dancing, viewers in the Middle East love talk shows
• What is Gifto – taking live streaming virtual gifting model and plugging it in to other platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram
• Also working with offline stores so people can use Gifto to pay for things, easy to transfer to other users

Learn More:

Asiainnovations.com