Northeastern China, the former heavy industry base of China, is now going lighter thanks to live-streaming industry and e-commerce that are going robust across the vast land rich in agricultural products and talented performers.

According to data from short video giant Douyin, all three provinces – Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning – all made it to the top five of the ranking list for video views, while the three provinces also occupied the top three seats on a live-stream host report issued by Momo, a social media platform.

Home to many famous comedians in China, the three provinces are naturally bestowed with talented performers to develop internet celebrity economy and live-streaming industry, which require active engagement and interaction with users to attract more viewers and hence more profits. The impressive local dialects also made hosts from northeast China stand out among others.

On the other hand, the region is China’s breadbasket. In 2018, the three provinces combined harvested 133.3 billion kilograms of grain, up 15 billion kilograms from 2017, providing some 20.3% of the total grain production of the nation.

Sales of agricultural products, equipped with e-commerce and internet celebrity promotion, has been soaring.

Between April and May, Heilongjiang Province sold over 26,000 pieces of agricultural products in live-streaming sales that recorded over 8 million views, altogether yielding more than 2 million yuan sales volume for the province, China News Service reported.

Data revealed at a Chinese internet celebrity promotion tour in Jilin over the weekend showed that the province’s online sales, rural retail online sales and cross-border trade volume increased by 18.1%, 19.7% and 31% respectively as of end of July.

Jilin is home to three cross-border e-commerce pilot areas and has a total of 159 national- or provincial-level e-commerce demo bases or leading enterprises. More than 1.6 million people and 200,000 active online stores are engaged in the industry, said Cai Dong, vice provincial governor, at the live-streaming economy forum during the promotion tour.

To further expand the advantages, the province also announced at the forum to set up a provincial-level live-streaming training base, which will be supported by 22 vocational colleges in Jilin.