Can T97 Coffee turn livestream fame into real sales?
T97 Coffee gained more than 1.5 million followers in just over two months through shout-style livestreaming built around its big-mouthed host. Founder Li Xiao embraced the attention, saying he wants to be the man who defeats Luckin, and made provocative remarks aimed at Luckin and Starbucks during broadcasts.
The brand has only 48 offline stores, and the founder sells courses alongside coffee, so high popularity has not translated into matching sales. T97 began livestreaming on Douyin in April and only gained traction in September after switching to the shout-style format. How far a traffic-driven brand can go remains the open coffee knowledge question.
T97 Coffee quickly rose to fame with its shout-style livestreaming and its iconic big-mouthed host, gaining over 1.5 million followers in just over two months. Founder Li Xiao seized the momentum and made bold claims, declaring that he wanted to be "the man who defeats Luckin," and repeatedly made provocative remarks in the livestream challenging Luckin and Starbucks. However, T97 has only 48 offline stores, and the founder sells courses while selling coffee—his high popularity has not translated into actual sales. How far can this coffee brand, which gained fame through traffic, really go? This article reviews T97's path to fame and its points of controversy.
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Through shout-style livestreaming sales, combined with a highly recognizable big-mouthed female host, T97 Coffee became an internet sensation in an extremely short time. By now, T97's official flagship store account has climbed to 1.532 million followers in just over two months—a result that undoubtedly proves it has gone viral, with a level of popularity that probably even T97 founder Li Xiao himself did not anticipate.
Today, according to Sina Finance, the founder of T97 responded to outsiders saying he "wants to defeat Luckin": "That's exactly what I want." He said bluntly that people who criticize him now all call him "the guy who claims he's going to defeat Luckin," and that this is precisely the effect he wants to achieve. He also joked about himself in a Douyin livestream, saying he is a person who is "greedy for money, lustful, and shameless."
In fact, as early as April this year, T97 Coffee's official flagship store had already launched its first livestream sales session on Douyin. After that, it gradually shifted to a daily livestreaming model, but it remained largely unnoticed. It was not until September, when it tried shout-style livestreaming sales, that it slowly gained traction. At first, T97's shout-style livestream did not deliberately amplify the host's big-mouth feature, and the female host herself was somewhat restrained because of her relatively large mouth, deliberately using light-colored lipstick and mouth-shrinking beauty filters before going live. But one time she forgot to cover it up, and instead it brought traffic to the livestream room.
After noticing netizens' reactions, T97 quickly adjusted its livestreaming operation strategy and turned the host's big mouth into a highlight. The host also completely let go. After being teased by fans that she looked like a big-mouthed frog, she simply wore the same kind of headband. With her lively, down-to-earth personality and distinctive big-mouth image, she attracted a large number of fans and also quickly made this coffee brand go viral.
The popularity of the livestream room is like a fire burning brighter and brighter—the closer you get, the more easily you get singed—and Li Xiao, chairman of Gejia Network and founder of T97 Coffee, was naturally the one burned the most.
In addition to the official livestream account, Li Xiao also opened multiple accounts, such as "Li Xiao," "Li Xiao - Shopkeeper Xiao," and "Li Xiao Brand Network Studio." The content posted by these accounts is mostly similar, but none of them sells coffee; instead, they sell courses teaching people how to do Douyin. The process is also simple: first attract users to add WeChat, then submit materials, pay money, and it's done.
In the livestream room, T97 founder Li Xiao kept making bold statements challenging Luckin. Facing netizens' doubts, he responded directly in the livestream: "Let me tell you clearly, I have never taken Luckin seriously in my life." He also painted a picture of the future landscape of Chinese coffee: T97 Coffee first, Luckin second, Starbucks third.
Li Xiao also said, "In the past, challenging Alibaba and JD.com was no problem for me either," and "I once lost 1 billion yuan in real money and built 50 billion yuan in scale. Has Luckin sold 50 billion yuan from its founding to today?" Listening to these bold claims, even Jack Ma might consider joining as a franchisee.
But according to the current Douyin account of T97 Coffee's flagship store, it has only 48 offline stores. Whether this wave of T97 Coffee is cutting leeks or not is aside for now, but judging from this situation, it will probably be very difficult for T97 Coffee to surpass Luckin.
It is not only the founder who is mired in controversy. For T97 after going viral, the test has only just begun. In this fast-paced era, the explosive popularity brought by shout-style livestreaming may only be temporary. What T97 really needs to think about is how to retain consumers over the long term. The coffee track is already extremely crowded, and without strong product power, it is not easy to take business away from competitors. Now that T97 Coffee's high popularity has still failed to drive sales, how much longer can it stay hot?
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
