With short videos as the main sales tool, the application intends to continue expanding in the country, its second largest market
Bringing experience from China, Kwai enters Brazilian e-commerce in earnest. The short video app’s e-commerce has been tested since the end of 2023 in Brazil, but it is now that the platform is launching Kwai Shop on the market. Under the tagline “Here general shines”, the app now has the competitive advantage of bringing together entertainment and shopping on the same social network, ahead of many competitors, with expertise in videos and live commerce – one of the Chinese specialties.
In Brazil, Kwai’s audience is 60 million active users. The app is quite popular, especially in the Northeast of the country with an older audience – 85% of users are over 25 years old -, and is betting its chips on this market share, and on expanding participation among other regions.
With an eye on the potential of the Brazilian internet – according to internal data, the company has already experienced an 800% increase in daily purchase orders in 2024 in Brazil -, the investment in e-commerce is also anchored in the success that Kuaishou (parent company of Kwai ) obtains in the Chinese e-commerce market, where the platform’s declared GMV (gross merchandise volume) reached around US$42 billion in the second quarter of 2024, representing a 15% increase compared to the same period in 2023.
Growth is driven, above all, by the adoption of short videos as the main sales tool. “A short video shows features and characteristics of the products, entertaining users, who can watch the content and make purchases at the same time. The short video format is a great advantage of Kwai e-commerce to help brands sell more on the platform,” says Ricky Xu, vice president and head of global platform and e-commerce at Kuaishou International Business.
The Chinese app offers a complete combo to attract buyers within the same platform, positioning itself as the first social network with true e-commerce. In addition to the strength of short videos, the social network also has expertise in live commerce broadcasting in China, where content creators sell online. A Chinese influencer called Mingming, for example, who promotes products from her rural region on Kwai Shop, sold around US$1.5 million in a single live stream in August this year.
In addition to purchasing and paying within the app, Kwai Shop also allows you to track orders in real time. Products can be added to the shopping cart directly via live videos or seller pages on Kwai Shop.
“Providing live streaming, short videos and e-commerce gives users yet another reason to open the app. On the other hand, e-commerce offers a better way for profiles to monetize the traffic they have on the platform. We can also help sellers have more visibility among their followers and boost their sales on Kwai. Furthermore, it is an efficient way to help brands build their image among platform users”, points out Xu.
Since 2019 in Brazil, Kuaishou reveals that it has invested more than R$7 billion so far and, for next year, it intends to continue expanding e-commerce. “We believe there is great potential for growth (in e-commerce) in the coming years. However, prices and logistics in the Brazilian market remain somewhat high. Firstly, we hope to improve our logistics efficiency and provide better experiences, because users care a lot about cost and logistics. Secondly, we want to attract more local, small and medium sellers, as well as brands, increasing our user data and, therefore, helping our partners to sell more”, reinforces the VP of Kuaishou.
Second largest market
Brazil is the second largest market for Kuaishou, behind only China. “In five years, we grew from zero to more than 30 million daily active users and 60 million monthly. We already consider ourselves part of the country’s population. Brazil is a market where we are dedicating a lot of effort and time. We are now increasing commercial opportunities, with live experience and offering e-commerce for Brazilians. We can develop quickly in Brazil by taking advantage of our technology based in China”, reveals Ji Cheng, vice president and head of global operations at Kuaishou International Business.
According to the executive, the company’s entire international team is focused on Brazil. One of the first objectives for next year is to consolidate the model with advertising and now e-commerce. “On the user experience side, it’s about improving the content more and more. We always seek to have communities and ecosystems within Kwai to engage the audience.”
For Ji, one of Kwai’s special advertising offerings is through branded content in Kwai’s soap operas, mini-soap operas called Telekwai, one of the main content hits in China. “We won several awards with TeleKwai branded content. The objective is to integrate advertising with the content. The brand is an element within the context and the person enjoys the story more, they are not watching a commercial”, he contextualizes.
The executive notes that one of the main advantages of the local market is that Brazilians engage much more with content than other audiences. “We have some features that Brazilian users use much more than Chinese users, for example,” he says.
Regarding Kwai’s penetration in the country, Ji Cheng reports that it is greater in the Northeast, a phenomenon similar to what happened in China, but the app is starting to gain more users in the Southeast, mainly in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Compared to other apps, the audience is also older, with 85% of users over 25 years of age.
“This is a big difference compared to other social networks. We start from a more regular mindset. If you look at other American and short video platforms, they have an American culture, with the support of big international celebrities. But we started with normal people. We believe that we are not a platform for celebrities or big influencers, but rather for a regular audience. Our proposal is very different. The live record is a very popular format on Kwai, much more than on other platforms”, explains the vice president and head of global operations at Kuaishou International Business.
Kuaishou began operating in China in 2011 as the first short video app in the Asian country. It currently has more than a billion active users worldwide.