And let’s see what happens over the next decade as Instagram builds out its commerce operation. Perhaps we’ll all be stores someday. (Whatever that means.)

Chinese social-commerce apps like Douyin (Tiktok in China) or Xiaohongshu are closer to what Curator-led retail experiences could be. Verified influencers are able to list or tag products sourced from wholesale sites like Taobao or JD.com, and followers can check out directly on the streamer's page. Douyin, which has about 300M daily active users, ... See more

For The New Optimists, livestreaming will continue to be a dominant shopping option. Why? This is a highly social, on-the-go group, and livestream allows them to interact and shop virtually anywhere. This form of conversational commerce is mainstream in China (livestream shopping generated $4.4bn in sales in 2018), Japan, Southeast Asia and South K... See more