- Title: Live-streaming seafood seller makes millions in sales in Thailand
- Date: 20th June 2019
- Summary: SATUN PROVINCE, THAILAND (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) LIVE-STREAMING SEAFOOD SELLER, ANURAK SARUETHAI, SAYING: "My name is Anurak Saruethai or Hasun Saruethai. I'm selling dried seafood from Satun province via Facebook live. I make around a million baht ($32,000) for three hours of live every day." ANURAK RINGING A BELL TO MARK THE START OF HIS FACEBOOK LIVE AUCTION (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) LIVE-STREAMING SEAFOOD SELLER, ANURAK SARUETHAI, SAYING: "I started out selling three kilograms of squid that I bought. I fried it to make it look more interesting and I did the Facebook live, but I did not make any sales at all." ANURAK ADJUSTING STUDIO LIGHT PHONE BEING SET UP ANURAK PUTTING ON GLOVES (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) LIVE-STREAMING SEAFOOD SELLER, ANURAK SARUETHAI, SAYING: "For my second 'live' sale, I explained who I am, where I am from, how to fish and many more details with cheerful expressions." VARIOUS OF ANURAK AND HIS TEAM THROWING SEAFOOD PACKAGES WHILE ANNOUNCING CUSTOMER NAMES DRIED SQUID ON THE TABLE VARIOUS OF ANURAK SPEAKING TO CAMERA DURING 'LIVE' AUCTION (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) LIVE-STREAMING DRIED-SEAFOOD SELLER, ANURAK SARUETHAI, SAYING: "I feed the audience with ideas of me as a fisherman who knows all about the seafood products that I'm selling. I know when is the best season to catch seafood and which part is the best to eat, so let me choose for you." VARIOUS OF ANURAK'S TEAM SIEVING DRIED SHRIMPS FOR SALE VARIOUS OF ANURAK'S TEAM PUTTING DRIED-SEAFOOD INTO PACKAGES (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) LIVE-STREAMING SEAFOOD SELLER, ANURAK SARUETHAI, SAYING: "I also feed an idea of once in a lifetime your mother, family members and yourself need to get a chance to eat good seafood. I give audiences the reasons why they need to buy my products because everyone finds a reason to buy something. After that, end it with selling my seafood products."
- Embargoed: 4th July 2019 12:12
- Keywords: Thailand e-commerce business online live-streaming Facebook live seafood
- Location: SATUN PROVINCE, THAILAND/INTERNET
- City: SATUN PROVINCE, THAILAND/INTERNET
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA003AKA68UF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: "Take it! Take it! Take it! The food is delicious! Delicious! Delicious!"
Anurak Saruethai, wearing a chef's uniform and signature red fez, yells in his Thai southern dialect to his thousands of viewers - and potential customers - via a Facebook live-stream.
The live-stream has gained immense popularity across Thailand in recent months thanks to Anurak's rapid fire comedy, descriptive content and interaction with customers.
Anurak, better known as Bang Hasun by fans and his team are clocking in hundreds of thousands of viewers and millions in sales of dried shrimp, squid and fish every night from a nondescript shophouse in the seaside fishing village of La-ngu in Thailand's southern province of Satun.
"Free delivery - nationwide!" they yell hours before midnight on the HasunDriedSeafood Facebook page, which has a following of over half a million. "We have orders coming in every minute," Anurak told Reuters, clearing about a million baht ($32,000) in sales for three hours of live-streaming.
The son of a fisherman, Anurak says he was not very gifted in the sea-faring trade, but instead tells the stories behind the ingredients and fishermen who caught them. Nearly 600,000 unique views have been recorded as his fans and customers tune in for his sales pitches and southern charm and in March, Anurak's sales reached 26 million baht ($834,000). One villager says they were now sending nearly 500 kilos of fish to Anurak to auction online, double of what they were selling before.
Anurak's success story is part of the burgeoning social commerce segment within Thailand's 3 trillion baht ($96.3 billion) e-commerce market, data from Thailand's Electronic Transaction Development Agency (ETDA) shows.
Social media commerce works when customers discover products on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They then send a message to the merchant to place their orders and usually make a bank transfer or use credit cards as payment. The merchants will confirm the payment and box the order for delivery.
In 2018, ETDA estimated that sales via social media came in at 334.2 billion baht ($10.7 billion), mostly from small businesses like Anurak's seafood live-stream.
(Production: Jiraporn Kuhakan, Travis Teo) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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