Chinese video sharing site allows users to make money

Kuaishaou is letting users monetise their videos by linking them to online stores

Spotted: The Chinese video sharing site Kuaishou is allowing users to monetise their videos by linking them to online stores. For example, a farmer may post a video about their farm, and then use the site to sell fresh farm products. Other users post funny dog videos that link to pet food sales sites.

The site has built a reputation for posting videos of people performing crazy antics, such as putting firecrackers in their underwear or showing off their knife-spinning skills. But the site is also popular with ordinary people, who post videos of their daily lives.

Kuaishou has around 130 million active daily users, mostly in in lower-tier cities and rural areas. The site’s biggest rival Douyin, which targets users in China’s top tier cities, has also added e-commerce functionality, by integrating external online shopping links from Taobao, China’s biggest e-commerce platform. Taobao has also recently launched an AI program called Alibaba Wood, which can produce up to 200 short videos of products in one minute and can automatically match the music style in the video to whatever people are selling.