Luo Yonghao (right) does a livestream promoting food. [Photo/ zj.zjol.com.cn]

Luo Yonghao, one of China's most popular e-commerce anchors and internet celebrities, launched on the night of April 23 his first commercial live-stream at a new office in the Internet Town in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province.

The seven-hour promotional event, watched by 6.24 million netizens on Douyin (known as TikTok outside China), sold out at greatly discounted prices more than 260,000 articles of products, raking in 20.78 million yuan ($3.21 million).

Luo's livestreaming firm signed a contract to relocate to the city's Internet Town On Feb 3.

Luo Yonghao's livestreaming team signs a cooperation agreement with the government in Hangzhou's Binjiang district on Feb 3. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Three days before the broadcast, local media reported that all staffers in the firm were moving from Beijing to Hangzhou. "Our 400 colleagues in Beijing are gradually moving to Hangzhou. Many of them are currently contacting real estate agents for the search of new homes in the city," Huang He, a business partner of Luo's, told the reporter.

According to Huang, the firm is considering raising the frequency of its commercial livestreaming events and plans to double its workforce to 800 people in Hangzhou.

"Hangzhou has a huge talent reserve for livestreaming e-commerce," a public relations clerk of the firm said. He told the reporter that after a deep investigation, the firm found that compared with Beijing, Hangzhou is home to many more experienced livesteamers, which means manufacturers from various industries could be better served by e-commerce platforms operating in the city.

Apart from Luo, a great many celebrities, such as Chen He, Eric Tsang, Hu Haiquan, Jin Chen, and Zhang Junning, have engaged in Hangzhou-based e-commerce platforms. A Multi-Channel Network manager told the reporter that Hangzhou is definitely the top choice among Chinese cities when it comes to seeking business partners in the supply chain and talent in livestreaming for e-commerce events.

Last year, the government in Hangzhou's Binjiang district, where the Internet Town is located, set a goal of developing the district into the country's top zone for livestreaming e-commerce and started to introduce a group of first-tier livestreaming platforms, MCN institutes, and digital content providers so as to attain that goal.