China Sihui Jade From TianGuangXu to the City That Never Sleeps

 China Sihui Jade From TianGuangXu to the City That Never Sleeps

Southern News Network 2020-08-21 15:19

The weather after the typhoon was particularly quiet, but a city under the night sky still exuded steaming heat.

At 1:15 am on August 20, 2020, a Douyin live broadcast room named "Shilipai Jade" was still in full swing. The female anchor was measuring the thickness of the jade Buddha sculpture with a cursor scale in front of the camera, while introducing the meaning of the Buddha sculpture. The barrage under the live broadcast room kept popping up, discussing the workmanship and texture of the goods.

The live broadcast room is located in Sihui City, the "Hometown of Chinese Jade". More than 70% of the jade pendants and ornaments in the country are made by Sihui jade craftsmen. Today, Sihui is also at the forefront of the industry in the "new track" of online live broadcasting, occupying the top position in jewelry live broadcast sales on multiple platforms, and is known as the "Chinese Jade Live Broadcast Capital" in the industry. Sihui Jade has 3 million visitors a day, with daily sales of nearly 30 million yuan, accounting for about 60% of the city's total jade sales.

By seizing the new opportunities of e-commerce live streaming, Sihui has opened up a distinctive development path of "online live streaming + jade", and the city's jade industry has continued to develop in the direction of aggregation, service, and high-end.

Embrace change and dare to be the first

"Entrepreneurship is a temperament written in the genes of Sihui's jade industry." Fang Guoying, general manager of Wanxinglong Jade City (hereinafter referred to as "Wanxinglong"), introduced that Sihui has always been at the forefront of every stage of the development of the jade industry and has always embraced change.

Sihui has no jade minerals. Under the historical opportunity, a group of jade craftsmen gathered here and gradually formed family workshops. In the mid-to-late 1990s, under the support and guidance of the local government, jade professional markets gradually took shape, and a number of jade streets and jade cities with a certain scale and grade were built, attracting a large number of merchants to invest and trade.

During this period of rapid development, jade merchants with entrepreneurial spirit spontaneously formed the "Jade Tianguang Market" market. From midnight to dawn, merchants came to purchase jade in an endless stream.

The brave and competitive Sihui jade people made a name for themselves throughout the country and even the world. Sihui Jade Market gradually became a well-known jade product sales distribution center and the largest jadeite wholesale market in Guangdong. In 2003, Sihui City was awarded the title of "China Jade Hometown", and Yucheng became the city abbreviation of Sihui City.

Grassroots entrepreneurship has its vibrant and progressive side, but naturally it also has its disorderly and chaotic side. Entering the second decade of the new century, some merchants have problems such as dishonest management and false price reporting, which hindered the development of Sihui's jade industry.

In 2013, a group of Sihui jade markets represented by Wanxinglong bravely took the first step to reverse the industry's malpractice. Through the party members' leading by example, they took the lead in promising "all A-grade products, 10 times compensation for fakes" nationwide, eliminating the problem of selling inferior products as good ones from the root, which hindered the development of the industry.

In the first half of this year, e-commerce live broadcast ushered in a period of great explosion. Jewelry live broadcast has come into the public's view from a little-known corner. Sihui jade live broadcast has been repeatedly exposed in the mainstream financial circle and has become an indispensable part of various e-commerce live broadcast platforms. The "Chinese Jade Town" has ushered in the revival of development.

All this seems sudden, but behind it is still the efforts of Sihui jade people who seek innovation and change.

Around 2015, affected by the economic environment, sales of many traditional jade stores in Sihui began to tighten. Some people held on, while others thought about change. From the initial "micro-business" sales to the market "walking broadcast", many new faces holding mobile phones entered the store, bringing new sales methods and new vitality.

While other jade markets are still driving away anchors because of the "newness" of online live broadcasting, live broadcast rooms have been built one after another in Sihui. The live broadcast rooms that are still brightly lit until late at night echo the Tianguang Market that never stops day and night. Now, in addition to jade merchants, there are also young people who are heading straight for the wind.

The development of new formats requires the help of new industry forces. In recent years, the Sihui Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have successively signed cooperation agreements with Taobao, JD.com, Duizhuang, YY, Kuaishou and other platforms. In June this year, the Sihui LIVE Live Broadcast Base (hereinafter referred to as the "LIVE Live Broadcast Base") built in cooperation with Douyin was officially put into operation. In the months since its construction, the base has more than 300 merchants settled in, and there are more than 500 active live broadcast accounts. The activity of the local live broadcast industry can be seen.

Once again, Sihui has "been the first to taste the soup" of the new stage of jade development.

A city where young people pursue their dreams

Usually, we can't see the anchor's face in the jewelry live broadcast room. The camera focuses on the goods displayed in the anchor's hands, and behind the camera are young and energetic faces.

"Earrings represent listening to the voice of love for a lifetime. This pair of fluorescent earrings is very suitable as a token of love." Xin Yang, who is working hard to recommend goods in front of the camera, is an anchor under the Shilipai Company. She is just 25 years old this year and has lived in Shanghai, Yunnan, Myanmar and other places. In the end, she chose to stay in Sihui and become a jade anchor.

"If you want to use one word to describe Sihui, it would be 'steaming'." Xin Yang said that she is a person who dares to challenge herself and try new things. When she first arrived in Sihui, she was infected by the vitality of the city. In Tianguang Market, there are merchants coming and going 24 hours a day. Everyone is walking in a hurry, with a firm and hopeful look in their eyes. "People always have to go to a place where they can realize their dreams. For me, that place is Sihui."

After the completion of the LIVE live broadcast base, Xinyang began her live broadcast career. Having had experience in e-commerce, she quickly got on the right track and recommended carefully selected goods to fans in the live broadcast room every day. "The live broadcast of jade is full of imagination. Just like everyone in this city, every stone has its own story." Xinyang said.

"Xinxin, I am doing jade live broadcast in Sihui, why don't you help me?" Because of a friend's words, Zhang Xinxin came to Sihui from afar. This young "post-90s" has the unique boldness and decisiveness of Shandong girls.

Sihui, as described by friends, is inclusive and full of opportunities. Zhang Xinxin's work and life in the past few months have also confirmed that her friends' words are not "false propaganda". The anchors never cherish their own things, often exchange live broadcast skills, and ask the owners for jade knowledge and teach them everything they know. Zhang Xinxin, who has never been involved in the live broadcast industry, quickly mastered the basic skills required by anchors.

"Companies, bases and even government departments often organize training courses for anchors every month. Here, as long as you work hard, there is no career that cannot be accomplished." Zhang Xinxin said.

Zhang Xinxin came to Sihui with her schoolmate Liu Wenhao. This young man who just graduated had just failed the postgraduate entrance examination and had a small amount of debt for some reasons. After working as an anchor in the "Imagination" jewelry live broadcast room for several months, he has solved his financial problems.

Liu Wenhao only understood the challenges when he really started his work as an anchor. There must not be any "empty microphone" during the seven to eight hours of live broadcast. When he first started live broadcasting, he stumbled and spoke incoherently like many people. The live broadcast team gave newcomers enough tolerance and support. When they went off the air, they would not blame him, but would evaluate the live broadcast situation of the day in detail. Although there was no severe criticism, the team's detailed review virtually drove him to self-pressure and grow rapidly.

"There are few industries like jade live broadcasting that can help a young person who has just entered the society to quickly gain a foothold. The work pace here is fast and the pressure is high, which is why everyone is full of motivation." Liu Wenhao said.

The "slow work" of fast live broadcasting

When talking about what qualities an excellent anchor needs to have, in addition to the qualities generally required in the live broadcasting industry such as service spirit and communication skills, the most mentioned by jade anchors is continuous learning.

"For general fast-moving consumer goods, live broadcast sales do not need to consider too much trust and issues involving consumer decisions, but due to the non-standardization and high unit price of jade pendants, customers will consider the professionalism of the anchor, the detailed characteristics of the goods, the sales scene, the service system and other aspects before purchasing." He Peng, who has been working in the live broadcasting industry since 2015, summarized it this way. He is one of the merchants settled in the LIVE live broadcast base, and also serves as an anchor in his own "He Peng Jewelry" live broadcast room.

He introduced that jewelry live broadcast rooms mostly use equipment with high color reproduction for shooting, and at the same time display as many goods as possible. On this basis, it is necessary to introduce the goods in more dimensions, which requires the anchor to have a deep enough understanding of jade knowledge and culture.

"When customers recognize you and trust you, they will place orders with you. At the same time, the repurchase rate of jade is much higher than that of other goods." He Peng said that jewelry anchors will manage every fan carefully and become friends with them. The platform utilization rate and conversion rate of jewelry live broadcast rooms are also much higher than other live broadcasts with goods. A live broadcast with thousands of people can reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of sales.

If the "skills" of doing a good job in online live broadcasting are beyond live broadcasting, it takes time to slowly polish, then promoting the development of the live broadcast industry is the same.

"Not only in the jade industry, Sihui Jade is also a 'head player' under the large category of arts and crafts live broadcasts." Yu Hangchong, the person in charge of the operation of the LIVE live broadcast base, introduced that among the same type of industrial clusters, Sihui has a complete industrial chain from raw material processing to wholesale and retail, with hundreds of thousands of employees, and has a very good foundation for industrial development.

On this basis, Sihui has empowered the local jade industry by cooperating with various live broadcast platforms. Taking the LIVE live broadcast base as an example, the base is equipped with a supply chain area, an integrated center integrating testing, logistics, and warehousing, and provides high-quality anchor and operation training courses, as well as comprehensive after-sales services for a long time.

The relevant person in charge of the Sihui jade industry said that through cooperation with the platform, Sihui will not only open up the sales market for jade products, but also promote the development of multiple categories of colored gems and precious metal products, and further extend and expand the development chain of the jade industry. The prosperous development of the jade live broadcast industry will gather merchants, talents and capital from various industrial bases across the country to enter Sihui, not limited to the jade industry. In the future, Sihui will be built into a headquarters-type, service-type, and application-type e-commerce cluster.

At the same time, Sihui will make every effort to promote the deep integration of the jade live broadcast industry and the tourism industry, develop the jade mall and jade live broadcast base into Sihui's popular tourist check-in points, further polish the golden signboard of "China's Jade Hometown", and make every effort to create a provincial full-domain tourism demonstration zone. This will be a long-term and systematic project.

Sihui City--China's key cities for attracting foreign investment

Investment Promotion Bureau of Sihui City

Address: 3F, Administrative Center, Dongcheng Street, Sihui City, Guangdong Province

Tel:   0086-758-3611228

Fax:  0086-758-3611188

Email: SHQYFW@VIP.163.com