By Marcus Zhan, China market strategist at GMA.

There is a model that runs almost every successful product launch in China now, and if you are not using it, you are leaving money on the table. Short video to warm up, livestream to convert. It is the standard playbook for launches and shopping festivals on Douyin and beyond. Yet foreign brands keep running one without the other, or neither, because their marketers have not bothered to learn how China actually sells. Here is the model, and how to run it.

The China launch model in numbers (2026)

• “Short video warm-up plus livestream conversion” is now standard practice.
• Douyin has over 746 million monthly active users.
• China live commerce is heading past 1 trillion dollars.
• Livestream buyers jumped more than 21% year over year.

How the model works

It is simple, and brutal in its logic. First, short video seeds desire and awareness: creators and brand clips flood Douyin and RED in the days before a launch or festival, building interest and teaching the audience why they want it. Then the livestream converts: a host demonstrates, answers questions, and drops limited-time offers, turning all that warmed-up demand into sales in real time. One without the other underperforms. Short video with no livestream leaves demand uncaptured. Livestream with no warm-up plays to an empty room.

Stop being lazy: this is learnable

Here is what frustrates me. This model is documented everywhere, on Digitaling, in platform playbooks, in every case study. Yet foreign brands show up with a single glossy ad and expect results. If your marketers are not studying how Chinese brands sequence content and livestream, they are not doing their job. Read the cases. Watch the lives. Stop being ignorant of a model your competitors mastered years ago.

The mistakes every brand makes

• Livestream with no warm-up. One brand went live to almost nobody because it skipped the short-video build-up.
• Warm-up with no conversion. Another built buzz, then had no livestream to capture it. Demand evaporated.
• Wrong host. A big-name host with the wrong audience sold nothing.
• No urgency. Livestreams without limited offers give viewers no reason to buy now.
• Being lazy. Not learning the model, then blaming the platform.

How to run it right

Plan launches as a sequence, not an event. Seed short video across Douyin and RED for days before, with creators and clips that build desire. Line up the right host and a livestream with real demonstration and time-limited offers. Time it around festivals like 618, Double 11 and Chinese New Year to ride the traffic. Then measure and repeat. This is how China sells.

What this means for you

In China, short video and livestream are two halves of one selling machine. Run them together, timed around the calendar, or watch competitors convert the demand you failed to capture. For context, see live commerce and Douyin.

Read next on our blog: how to sell lipstick in China, e-commerce first and water in China, a big opportunity.

Go deeper: our fashion sister agency breaks down paid amplification in this Douyin advertising guide, useful for scaling the warm-up phase.

FAQ: the short video and livestream model

What is the short video plus livestream model?

The standard China launch playbook: short video warms up demand and awareness, then a livestream converts it into sales in real time. Used together, they drive results.

Why can’t I just run a livestream?

Because without short-video warm-up you go live to an empty room. The warm-up builds the audience and desire that the livestream then converts.

How far ahead should the warm-up start?

Usually days before a launch or festival, with creators and clips across Douyin and RED building interest so the livestream has a warmed-up audience ready to buy.

When should I run the livestreams?

Time your biggest streams around festivals like 618, Double 11 and Chinese New Year to ride the traffic waves the whole market is already creating.

What makes a livestream convert?

The right host, honest demonstration, and limited-time offers that create urgency. Warmed-up demand plus urgency turns viewers into buyers on the spot.

Run the China launch model with GMA

At GMA, we plan and run short-video-to-livestream launches for foreign brands in China. If you want a selling machine, not a one-off ad, tell my team about your project.

Written by Marcus Zhan, China market strategist at GMA (Gentlemen Marketing Agency). I have watched too many strong brands lose in China because their marketers stopped reading and got lazy. I do not sugarcoat. Stay curious, or lose. — Marcus Zhan

GMA is a French agency based in Shanghai with more than 75 specialists, running digital marketing and e-commerce for foreign brands entering China.