Reframing Livestream Marketing: A Netnographic Exploration of Two-Way Communication in TikTok Livestream Agribusiness.

Abstract

Introduction: Live streaming has emerged as a major focus of online marketing, principally in applications such as TikTok. The bulk of existing literature, though, focuses on consumer involvement, neglecting the likelihood that these apps can be used as informal links between country businesses and their suppliers.  

 Objectives: In this project, it will consider the 2-way communication that takes place in the Indonesian livestock feed company TikTok livestreams by the name Kabul Miarso. To be specific, it captures the way rural viewers can send raw materials in real-time broadcasting, in essence, putting themselves in the position of potential suppliers, instead of being consumers.

Methods: The qualitative netnographic approach was adopted to follow the three months of livestream materials. Thematic coding was used to analyze a purposively selected subset of 25 unrequested chat interactions that were screenshot across the offering type, language patterns, and communicative intent.

Results: The results indicate that TikTok Live is more than a marketing tool; it will become a place where organic contact between suppliers can develop. Rural sellers also listed products including bran, corn and rice derivative, and put their propositions in terms that localized them and in a manner that specified transactions. The three major themes that appeared are that it was a case of user-initiated supply, the aspect of negotiation cues, and the idea of livestream as micro-marketplace.

Conclusions: This paper envisions livestream marketing as a two-way communication medium which facilitates grassroots trade. It contributes to the e-Marketing and netnography discourses of participation by exerting how rural players reuse the digital realm to initiate informal B2B communications, disrupting the established marketing premises.