The Nesting Strategies of E-Commerce Wanghong: Promotional Temporalities in Online Shopping Festivals on Chinese Platforms

The wanghong economy in China adopts unique platform monetization strategies, including social tipping, virtual gifting, advertising, and more prominently, e-commerce. E-commerce wanghong are one type of influencer focusing on pushing sales through e-commerce services and play a pivotal role in integrating e-commerce and social media. Online shopping festivals have recently catalyzed the intersection of wanghong cultures and e-commerce. A typical example is the e-commerce giant Alibaba, which implemented multi-stage promotional activities during online shopping festivals to provide practitioners with expanded business opportunities. Notably, this flourishing integration of e-commerce and wanghong culture is carefully guided by the Chinese government’s unique political agenda and regulatory framework. To study this dynamic interplay between e-commerce wanghong, platforms, and national policies, we explore how e-commerce wanghong become a kind of “platformed wanghong.” Furthermore, we examine how e-commerce platforms change users’ experiences of time during online shopping festivals, which we refer to as “promotional temporalities.” Finally, we investigate the “nesting strategies” employed by e-commerce wanghong during these events, which are intertwined with the platform’s promotional temporalities and must navigate compliance within the national regulatory framework. Our findings shed light on the complex relationship between e-commerce wanghong, platform strategies, state regulation, and audience engagement in the context of platform economy.