China’s first domestically built large cruise Adora Magic City leaves dock in Shanghai on June 6, 2023. The ship will be used in voyages to Northeast and Southeast Asian destinations departing from Shanghai and serve on medium and long routes along the Maritime Silk Road. Photo: VCG

 While people are busy considering promotions on different e-commerce platforms, a buyer from East China’s Shandong Province bought five days’ usage of Adora Magic City, China's first domestically built large cruise ship, for 20 million yuan ($2.7 million) after a promotion on e-commerce platform Taobao on Tuesday night. 

The buyer from Shandong has paid an intention fee of 180,000 yuan, Taobao told the Global Times on Wednesday.  

Taobao and Tmall launched “Double 11” promotions at 8 pm on Tuesday and about 10 million people watched the live broadcast sales for the cruise ship on Tuesday night.

“Compared with other tourism and holiday products, the market penetration rate for cruises is still relatively low. We hope to use high-quality online platforms to help us let more consumers know about cruising," said a person in charge of the sales for Adora Magic City. 

A screenshot of Taobao’s live broadcast sales room for Adora Magic City, China's first domestically-built large cruise ship, on October 24, 2023. Photo: courtesy of Taobao

This was the first appearance of the cruise ship in a livestreaming sale on an e-commerce platform. 

But Adora Magic City is not China’s first large industrial item of equipment to feature in livestreaming sales on an e-commerce platform. 

In March, Taobao’s live broadcast sales room sold a domestic commercial satellite worth 2 million yuan at a 50 percent discount, setting a precedent for the first physical commercial satellite transaction since the birth of e-commerce live broadcasting.

The satellite can provide consumers with personalized services such as space photography. After the satellite is airborne, when it passes over the ground monitoring and control station again, the space photo is sent to the ground, and then forwarded to the user. The satellite can be engraved with a company logo or name.

In January, a lot of China-made large industrial machines made their debut in Taobao’s livestreaming sales rooms, including the world's first pile and beam integrated bridge building machine and the world's largest shaft boring machine.

In April, 2020, Taobao’s livestreaming sales room sold a rocket worth 45 million yuan. Buyers were offered a 5-million-yuan discount by ordering via livestreaming. Over 800 people placed deposits of 500,000 yuan within minutes, Taobao told the Global Times.